"Rich with local color, period detail, and a fully realized historical and political backdrop, the forgotten story of the lone, fanatical assailant who stalked Theodore Roosevelt on the 1912 presidential campaign trail until the evening of October 14 in Milwaukee, when he shot the Bull Moose in the chest from ten feet away"--

This is the story of the charismatic explorer who Simon Bolivar called "the true discoverer of South America," and of the daring expedition that altered the course of science. Humboldt was the reigning scientific mind of the early 19th century, a unique combination of naturalist and adventurer. On a 6,000-mile journey through what is now Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and Cuba, risking his life in treacherous terrain, he conducted the...