Reviews for Climate in Human Perspective

The average rating for Climate in Human Perspective based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-08-28 00:00:00 Scott Silvia Robert Wilson ΦBK, Washington and Lee, 2005 Author From the publisher: In this, one of the year's most compelling biographies, Robert Wilson paints a brilliant portrait of Clarence King -- a scientist-explorer whose mountain-scaling, desert-crossing, river-fording, blizzard-surviving adventures helped create the new West of the nineteenth century. A sort of Howard Hughes of the 1800s, Clarence King in his youth was an icon of the new America: a man of both action and intellect, who combined science and adventure with romanticism and charm. The Explorer King vividly depicts King's amazing feats and also uncovers the reasons for the shocking decline he suffered after his days on the American frontier. The Yale-educated King went west in 1863 at age twenty-one as a geologist-explorer. During the next decade he scaled the highest peaks of the Sierra Nevada, published a popular book now considered a classic of adventure literature, initiated a groundbreaking land survey of the American West, and ultimately uncovered one of the greatest frauds of the century -- the Great Diamond Hoax, a discovery that made him an international celebrity at a time when they were few and far between. Through King's own rollicking tales, some true, some embroidered, of scaling previously unclimbed mountain peaks, of surviving a monster blizzard near Yosemite, of escaping ambush and capture by Indians, of being chased on horseback for two days by angry bandits, Robert Wilson offers a powerful combination of adventure, history, and nature writing. He also provides the bigger picture of the West at this time, showing the ways in which the terrain of the western United States was measured and charted and mastered, and how science, politics, and business began to intersect and influence one another during this era. Ultimately, King himself would come to symbolize the collision of science and business, possibly the source of his downfall. Fascinating and extensive, The Explorer King movingly portrays the America of the nineteenth century and the man who -- for better or worse -- typified the soul of the era.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-11-19 00:00:00 Raymond Goldstein In the book The Explorer King, by Robert Wilson is a biography of Clarence King. This biography is about the Scientist-Explorer Clarence King who helped create the West of the nineteenth century. Clarence King became a celebrity after exposing a fraud known as The Great Diamond Hoax. Clarence King in having a sense of adventure, tells of amusing stories, some that are true, and some that are exaggerated. Such as, him escaping an attack by Indians, being chased by bandits for two days, and him surviving a huge blizzard near Yosemite. In my opinion, this book was a good book and I like how it gave many vivid descriptions of the stories. Such as, when Clarence King was hiking in Yosemite, the book writes, " Snow blew in every direction, filling our eyes and blinding the poor mules, who often turned quickly from some sudden gust, and refused to go on" (Wilson 154). I enjoyed this book, and I would recommend this book to anyone who likes biographies and reading stories of adventure and discovery. This biography really shows Clarence King's personality and adventure in really vivid ways.