Nature, Colonialism, and Contemporary Ideologies

Today we welcome Michael Huldt, host of Worm From Home, an environmental history podcast focused on East London, to discuss the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Born in Berlin in 1769, he would travel the world amassing a wealth of botanical, geological, and human knowledge. Working in Europe, Russia, and South America, Humboldt became a pioneer of Western environmental thinking, breaking with contemporary scientific norms to forge an interconnected, ecological view of the world that still resonates today. His life was one of illuminating contradictions, and he is a fascinating figure for thinking about the creation of new concepts of 'Nature'  as racial capitalism was in its ascendancy - a vocal anti-slavery advocate, who was personal friends with Thomas Jefferson; an early European proponent of the idea that colonial extraction created massive environment destruction, who also forged a career through that colonial infrastructure; and a man with many famous friends whose very private - and homosexual - private life is still shrouded in mystery and historiographic embarrassment. 

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