Earth, An Intimate History - Hardcover

Fortey, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375406263 ISBN 13: 9780375406263

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 2004

Synopsis

The face of the earth, crisscrossed by chains of mountains like the scars of old wounds, has changed and changed again over billions of years, and the testament of the remote past is all around us. In this book Richard Fortey teaches us how to read its character, laying out the dominions of the world before us. He shows how human culture and natural history - even the shape of cities - are rooted in this deep geological past.

About this title

Review:

The Earth: An Intimate History is prize-winning science writer Richard Fortey's latest book and an ambitious attempt to tell the geological story of planet Earth for the general reader. Several centuries and the combined efforts of thousands of professional geologists have been required to make any real sense of the Earth's structure and its 4.5 billion-year history. That Fortey manages to turn the most important aspects of all this into an enjoyable narrative for the general reader is a considerable achievement.

The book is a sort of guided tour around a number of geological sites with which Fortey is personally familiar, such as the Grand Canyon, the European Alps and Vesuvius (the description of the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii in AD 79 by Pliny the Younger is probably the first clear and objective description of a geological phenomenon.) He then uses their particular geological details to build a more general story of the geology of earth as it is generally understood today.

As a professional geologist at London's Natural History Museum, Fortey is well-qualified to tell this story. His writing skills have been widely acclaimed in earlier books such as Life: An Unauthorised Biography and Trilobite Eyewitness to Evolution. By giving the story a historical slant we can more readily understand how the present understanding of the earth story has been built up over the centuries and it introduces real people into the narrative. Consequently, the more technical aspects of present day earth science are rendered more palatable and understandable. The text is supported by a number of black and white diagrams and other pictures, which help illustrate some of the more complex processes and features of the earth. --Douglas Palmer.

Review:

"Absorbing. . . . Cinematic. . . . The ultimate travel book, a guidebook that should be read by every person who wants to really know and understand the place we live on. . . . This enticing book deserves to be read many times over." --The New York Times

"Riveting. . . . Wonderfully engaging . . . tackles the biggest rock of all and how its geology has affected the lives of those who inhabit it. . . . In Fortey's hands, geology is a tale of high drama and action." --Chicago Tribune

"Crammed with interesting material, vividly and colorfully conveyed. . . . Fortey is a writer with a gift for making natural history come alive. . . . A delightful book to dip into, a treasure-house of mind-expanding lore." --Los Angeles Times

"Spectacular. . . . A tour de force. . . . For the science it covers, the human stories and the leisurely style in which it conveys vast amounts of information, Earth deserves to be a bestseller." --New Scientist

"Enthralling. . . . Fortey's writing is lovely. There's poetry in [his] words. . . . His gift for description is both intellectual and imaginative." --The Village Voice

"A whopping read even if you are scientifically and geologically impaired." --The New York Post

"[Fortey] takes the reader on a journey around the world including Mount Vesuvius, the Alps, Newfoundland, Los Angeles and the Deccan Traps in India. He is an eloquent guide."

--Scientific American

"Engaging. . . . With a naturalist's view of the land and a geologist's understanding of gradual change, Fortey does an admirable job of bringing the field to life." --Science News

"A dazzling voyage of discovery showing how our ancient, battered planet endlessly recycles itself." --The Sunday Times

"Fortey illuminates the world we know, and enriches our understanding of its past and future. Enjoy this remarkable book." --Financial Times

"Dazzling . . . Important and timely. We now look at the world in a different way, and Fortey provides a tour of the high ground and the hot spots. This book could be classed as history, or as science, or science history, or even travel. Forget all categories: it is simply a splendid book." --The Guardian

"A winning combination of bouncy prose and authoritative science has made Richard Fortey's previous natural history books best sellers. His latest offering deserves the same success." --Literary Review

"Richard Fortey is the Raymond Chandler of science writing. His prose is angelic, his phrases well-turned. . . . And though Earth is no murder story, it is a mystery book and, in its own way, a thriller." --The Economist

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0375406263
• ISBN 13: 9780375406263
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 429