Ebook: Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: A Critical Edition

In 1799, Alexander von Humboldt and Aim(r) Bonpland set out to determine whether the Orinoco River connected with the Amazon. But what started as a trip to investigate a relatively minor geographical controversy became the basis of a five-year explorationathroughout South America, Mexico, and Cuba.aThe discoveries amassed by von Humboldt and Bonpland were staggering, and much of todayOCOs knowledge of tropical zoology, botany, geography, and geology can be traced back to von HumboldtOCOs numerous records of these expeditions.aOne of these accounts, "Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas," firmly established Alexander von Humboldt as the founder of Mesoamerican studies. In "Views of the Cordilleras"OCofirst published in French between 1810 and 1813OCovon Humboldt weaves together magnificently engraved drawings and detailed texts to achieve multifaceted views of cultures and landscapes across the Americas. In doing so, he offers an alternative perspective on the New World, combating presumptions of its belatedness and inferiority by arguing that the OC oldOCO and the OC newOCO world are of the same geological age.aThis critical edition of "Views of the Cordilleras"OCothe second volume in the Alexander von Humboldt in English seriesOCocontains a new, unabridged English translation of von HumboldtOCOs French text, as well as annotations, a bibliography, and all sixty-nine plates from the original edition, many of them in color."