AARON SACHS

How gallows humor can bolster us to confront global warming We ve all seen the headlines oceans rising historic heat waves mass extinctions climate refugees It feels overwhelming like nothing can make a difference in combating this ongoing global catastrophe How can we mobilize to save the world when we feel this depressed Stay Cool enjoins us to laugh our way forward Human beings have used comedy to cope with difficult realities since the beginning of recorded time the more dismal the news the darker the humor Using this rich tradition of dark comedy to investigate climate change Aaron Sachs makes the case that gallows humor a mainstay of African Americans and Jews facing extraordinary oppression can cultivate endurance persistence and solidarity in the face of calamity Sachs surveys the macabre tradition of laughing during great suffering from the Black Plague to the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and offers some of the earliest examples of superlative dark comedy He also explores how a new generation of activists and comedians are deploying dark humor to great effect by poking fun at older people s apathy about climate catastrophes lambasting oil corporations eco rebranding and even producing an off Broadway dystopian comedy called Sea Le

A masterly and beautifully written account of the impact of Alexander von Humboldt on nineteenth-century American history and culture The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) achieved unparalleled fame in his own time. Today, however, he and his enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown. In The Humboldt Current, Aaron Sachs traces Humboldts pervasive influence on American history through examining the work of four explorersJ. N. Reynolds, Clarence King, George Wallace, and John Muirwho embraced Humboldts idea of a "chain of connection" uniting all peoples and all environments. A skillful blend of narrative and interpretation that also discusses Humboldts influence on Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, and Poe, The Humboldt Current offers a colorful, passionate, and superbly written reinterpretation of nineteenth-century American history.