The Earth: An Intimate History - Softcover

Fortey, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006551378 ISBN 13: 9780006551379

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2005

Synopsis

The paperback of the Sunday Times bestseller that reveals how the earth became the shape it is today. This book will change the way you see the world – permanently.

The face of the earth, criss-crossed by chains of mountains like the scars of old wounds, has changed constantly over billions of years. Its shape records a remote past of earthquakes, volcanos and continental drift, and the ongoing subtle shifts that bring our planet alive.

Richard Fortey introduces us to the earth’s distinct character, revealing the life that it leads when humans aren’t watching. He follows the continual movement of seabeds, valleys, mountain ranges and ice caps and shows how everything – our culture, natural history, even the formation of our cities – has its roots in geology. In Richard Fortey’s hands, geology becomes vital and exhilarating and unmistakably informs our lives in the most intimate way.

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:

Praise for ‘The Earth’:

‘A dazzling achievement. Richard Fortey is without peer among science writers.’ Bill Bryson

‘Books with a title this ambitious generally do not live up to their billing. This one does.’ New Scientist

‘“The Earth” is a true delight: full of awe-inspiring details...it blends travel, history, reportage and science to create an unforgettable picture of our ancient earth.’ Sunday Times

‘Read this book because it is, indeed, the best natural history of the first four billion years of life on earth.’ John Gribbin, Sunday Times

Praise for ‘The Hidden Landscape’:

‘Don’t drop dead until you have read “The Hidden Landscape”.’ Jonathan Keates, Observer

Praise for ‘Life: An unauthorised Biography’:

‘This is not a book for people who like science books. It is a book for people who love books, and life...[Fortey] has written a wonderful book.’ Tim Radford, Guardian

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0006551378
• ISBN 13: 9780006551379
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 528