This publication is presented to you through Paradigm Publishing Services
University of Chicago Press
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed
Requires Authentication
The Alpine Enlightenment
Horace-Bénédict de Saussure and Nature’s Sensorium
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2024
About this book
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.
Author / Editor information
Kathleen Kete is the Borden W. Painter, Jr., ‘58/H’95 Professor of European History at Trinity College in Connecticut.
Reviews
“The Alpine Enlightenment is at once a study of a major Swiss savant’s hard-headed love affair with the Alps, a plea for the singularly respectful view of nature that he embodied, and a vivid evocation of the Swiss milieu from which he came. The author makes a powerful case for seeing Horace-Bénédict de Saussure’s view of nature as scrupulously empirical and based on tangible bodily experience, vividly explaining how his life in Geneva and in the mountains fashioned his understanding of the natural world.”
— John Brewer, California Institute of Technology“In this innovative and exciting environmental biography, Kete places Saussure in an expanding set of contexts from family and home, through the urban milieu of his native Geneva and the trans-European sociability of Enlightenment science, to the mountain on the horizon. The Alpine Enlightenment is a sensitive study that shows how Saussure’s own alertness to his bodily, sensorial, emotional, and aesthetic relationship with the Alps led him to a new and personally engaged sense of humanity’s relationship to nature.”
— Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London"As a form of microcosmic/macrocosmic correspondence, Kete’s scrupulously researched text identifies Saussure with the higher aims of human endeavor, with the Enlightenment’s penetrating rigor, and with a pursuit of knowledge through systematic enquiry and elemental union with nature’s 'sensorium.'"
— Leonardo"Kete's book is knowledgeable, engaging, and original. With its spatial arrangement of the chapters, it is also suitable for cultural tourism purposes. Those interested can take it on a hike on site, where many tours around and on Mont Blanc are offered today. In paperback format, the book fits well in the backpack."
— H-Soz-KultTopics
-
Download PDFPublicly Available
Frontmatter
i -
Download PDFPublicly Available
Contents
vii -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction
1 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
1 Geneva
21 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
2 The Jura Mountains
53 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
3 The Arve Valley
79 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
4 Bodies of Desire
105 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
5 High Peaks
133 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
6 Mont Blanc
157 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
7 The Legacy
181 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Acknowledgments
195 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Notes
197 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Note on Sources
249 -
Download PDFRequires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Index
255
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
November 15, 2024
eBook ISBN:
9780226835471
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780226835471
Keywords for this book
environment; Enlightenment; nature; senses; Horace-Bénédict de Saussure; Mont Blanc
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
