The Humboldt current : nineteenth-century exploration and the roots of American environmentalism / Aaron Sachs.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 447-472) and index.

East : Humboldt and the influence of Europe -- South : J.N. Reynolds and the "more comprehensive promise" of the Antarctic -- West : Clarence King's experience of the frontier -- North : George Wallace Melville and John Muir in extremis.

"The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) achieved unparalleled fame in his own time, particularly in the United States. Today, however, he and his enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown." "In The Humboldt Current, Aaron Sachs seeks to reverse this undeserved obscurity by tracing Humboldt's pervasive influence on American history, specifically looking at the lives and careers of several nineteenth-century explorers who used Humboldt's notion of "unity in diversity" and his open-hearted spirit of exploration to develop a critique of their increasingly industrialized society."--book jacket.