When historians write about Alexander von Humboldt, it is not uncommon to see a small reference to Aimé Bonpland, the French naturalist who accompanied him in his travels through the American continent between 1799 and 1804. Stephen Bell’s book convincingly shows that Bonpland deserves much more than a quick footnote in the historical studies of nineteenth-century European and Latin American natural history, science, and agriculture. In a wonderfully researched study, Bell traces Bonpland’s life between 1817, the year he returned to South America, and 1858, when he died on his own estancia in Argentina.
Bonpland was a multifaceted character, and the book re-creates his many interests and the many ways in which he interacted with Argentine, Brazilian, Uruguayan, and Paraguayan societies. Next to his studies in botany and plant acclimatization, which guided much of his life and his many travels in Latin America, the French naturalist became an active, although...