The Story of Nature | A Human History

Description

Jeremy Mynott traces the story of nature — past, present, and future, from dramatic cave paintings of animals to the climate emergency today.

Nature has long been the source of human wonderment and the inspiration for some of their deepest creative impulses, but they are now witnessing its rapid impoverishment.

Jeremy Mynott traces the story of nature – past, present and future. He looks at the different ways humankind has understood and responded to it over the centuries, from earliest times through to present day concerns about the environment, biodiversity and the twin nature and climate crises. The narrative pivots on the question of whether humans are a part of nature – and if so, with what consequences for their responsibilities.

Mynott shows how this long history plays out in current, and likely future, political debates over the conservation, control and value of nature. He emphasises throughout the role that the human faculty of wonder can play in integrating their imaginative and scientific responses to the natural world and the meanings they find in it.

Jeremy Mynott’s books on natural history include Birdscapes: birds in their experience and imagination (Princeton, 2009); Birds in the Ancient World (OUP, 2018), shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize; and, as co-author, the lockdown diary, The Consolation of Nature (Hodder, 2020), which was a Guardian ‘book of the year’.

He has also edited and translated Thucydides (CUP, 2013). He is emeritus fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge and was formerly Chief Executive of Cambridge University Press.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception (paid bar is available) in the library upstairs.

Date

Location

The Linnean Society
Burlington House
Piccadilly
London
W1J 0BF

Prices

Other price options

Concessions: £10.46

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The information and prices in this listing are presumed to be correct at the time of publishing, but please always check with the venue before making a special trip.

All images are supplied by the exhibition organiser.

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