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I found that book rather annoyingly focused on nature holism and environmentalism, it felt like it was trying way too hard to project 21st century popular sensibilities onto Humboldt. And bizarrely it almost completely ignores his explorations in South America!

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"Almost ignore" is a bit strong - his South American trip is 40 of 340 pages. But yes, she doesn't give it any special prominence compared to the rest of his life (as it perhaps would have earned), and she talks a lot about his posthumous impact.

I think you've implicitly rejected the thesis of the book, which is of course your prerogative as a reader, but the way the comment is worded makes it unclear whether you realize you've rejected the thesis.

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