This is the best book I have had in my hands in a long time.
Why would a reasonably well read science teacher not know about this guy? He was an exceptional person who changed the way we see nature. He was famous in his time and soon after, there are more places named after him than anyone else in the world, but now in the United States, he is not very well known. There is a reason, but the author doesn't tell us this until near the end.
Want to know more about Jefferson, Bolivar, Napoleon, Goethe, world geography, ecology, and countless other topics, in a book that is not boring? The world just before and after 1800 makes better sense to me as I read this.
The reviewer suggested if you don't have time to read it now, read the prologue and epilogue, and also look through the books referenced. Then go back and read it at leisure later.
Actually I am not there yet. It is one of the books for the review series, and the reviewer was also one of the best. Usually I plow through a book in a day or two, but this is not that kind of book.
I missed the review this week, because I was on my own and it was cold and nasty, and I'm guessing the parking lot was full of people taking their kids because of school being out. I'll go next week though.
