18th century
A01=Kathleen Kete
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
alpine landscapes
Alps
Alps exploration
atmospheric optics
Author_Kathleen Kete
automatic-update
bodily senses
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HB
Category=NHB
Category=NHD
Category=QDH
COP=United States
crevasses
Delivery_Pre-order
detailed observation
earth
embodied perception
Enlightenment naturalism
environmental concerns
environmental philosophy
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
experiential knowledge
first-hand accounts
Genevan geologist
Genevan scientist
glaciers
glaciology
hearing
human-nature relationship
inventor
Language_English
meteorology
mountain climbing
mountaineer
natural phenomena
Nature experience
nature writing
PA=Not yet available
phenomenological approach
physical engagement
physicist
Price_€20 to €50
proto-environmentalism
PS=Active
respect for nature
sensory attunement
sensory immersion
sight
sky colors
softlaunch
touch
weather changes
Product details
- ISBN 9780226835488
- Weight: 367g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 19 Nov 2024
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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A study of the experience of nature in the eighteenth century based on the life of Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740–99).
In The Alpine Enlightenment, historian Kathleen Kete takes us into the world of the Genevan geologist, physicist, inventor, and mountaineer Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. During his prodigious climbs into the upper ranges of the Alps, Saussure focused intensely on the natural phenomena he encountered—glaciers, crevasses, changes in the weather, and shifts in the color of the sky—and he described with great precision what he saw, heard, and touched. Kete uses Saussure’s evocative writings, which emphasized above all physical engagement with the earth, to uncover not just how people during the Enlightenment thought about nature, but how they experienced it. As Kete shows, Saussure thought with and through his body: he harnessed his senses to understand the forces that shaped the world around him. In so doing, he offered a vision of nature as worthy of respect independent of human needs, anticipating present-day concerns about the environment and our shared place within it.
In The Alpine Enlightenment, historian Kathleen Kete takes us into the world of the Genevan geologist, physicist, inventor, and mountaineer Horace-Bénédict de Saussure. During his prodigious climbs into the upper ranges of the Alps, Saussure focused intensely on the natural phenomena he encountered—glaciers, crevasses, changes in the weather, and shifts in the color of the sky—and he described with great precision what he saw, heard, and touched. Kete uses Saussure’s evocative writings, which emphasized above all physical engagement with the earth, to uncover not just how people during the Enlightenment thought about nature, but how they experienced it. As Kete shows, Saussure thought with and through his body: he harnessed his senses to understand the forces that shaped the world around him. In so doing, he offered a vision of nature as worthy of respect independent of human needs, anticipating present-day concerns about the environment and our shared place within it.
Kathleen Kete is the Borden W. Painter, Jr., ’58/H’95 Professor of European History at Trinity College in Connecticut.
