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Author Echenberg, Myron J., author.

Title Humboldt's Mexico : in the footsteps of the illustrious German scientific traveller / Myron Echenberg
Published Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2017]
©2017

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Description 1 online resource (li, 236 pages, [8] pages of color plates) : illustrations
Series desLibris. Books collection
Contents Part One Arrival in Mexico, 23 March to 12 April 1803 : from Acapulco to Mexico City -- Part Two Visits to the Mexican Heartland, 14 May to 10 October 1803 : silver mines and active volcanoes -- Part Three Homeward bound, 30 January to 7 March 1804 : demography, disease, and departure from Veracruz
Summary "The incalculable influence of Alexander von Humboldt (1769 1859) on biology, botany, geology, and meteorology deservedly earned him the reputation as the world's most illustrious scientist before Charles Darwin. From 1799 to 1804, Humboldt's breath-taking explorations of Mexico and South America are akin to Europe's second "discovery" of the New World--this time, a scientific one. His Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain is a foundational document about Mexico and its cultures and is still widely consulted by anthropologists, geographers, and historians. In Humboldt's Mexico Myron Echenberg presents a straightforward guide with historical and cultural context to Humboldt's travels in Mexico. Humboldt packed a lifetime of scientific studies into one daunting year, and soon after published a four-volume account of his findings. His adventures range widely from inspections of colonial silver mines, hikes to the summits of volcanoes, meticulous examination of secret Spanish colonial archives in Mexico City, and scientific discussions of archaeological sites of pre-Hispanic Indigenous cultures. Echenberg traces Humboldt's journey, as described in his publications, his diary, and other writings, across the heartland of Mexico, while also pursuing Humboldt's life, his science, his experiences, his influence on scholars of his time and after, and the various efforts by others to honour and at times to denigrate his legacy. Part history, part travelogue, and always highly readable and informative, Humboldt's Mexico is an engaging account of a gifted scientist and visionary that ranges across topics as diverse and broad as the Romantic-era natural history."-- Provided by publisher
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859 -- Travel -- Mexico
SUBJECT Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859 fast
Subject Germans -- Travel -- Mexico
Scientists -- Travel -- Mexico
SCIENCE -- History.
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Science & Technology.
Germans -- Travel
Scientists -- Travel
Travel
SUBJECT Mexico -- History. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85084571
Mexico -- Description and travel. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85084548
Subject Mexico
Genre/Form Electronic books
History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780773549418
0773549412
9780773549425
0773549420