AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile
Andrew Knoll, a Harvard professor and researcher in geology and paleontology, covers a lot of ground in just five hours of listening. But Tom Parks’s pacing of the narrative never feels rushed during this primer on the origins of life, geological catastrophes, and mass extinctions, continuing right up to our current climate crisis. Knoll has an approachable writing style; only occasionally does he lapse into textbook jargon that will be a challenge for those without a science background. Parks navigates the technical language well, and while this isn’t a breezy listen, it’s an accessible and enlightening look at the geological, chemical, and human forces that have shaped our planet’s evolution. D.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
A fantastic distillation of Earth's history, from one of the world’s leading geologists: Andrew H. Knoll has written an engrossing, witty, and eminently readable romp through our home planet’s 4.5 billion years, from trilobites and dinosaurs to human origins and our rapidly changing modern times.” — Steve Brusatte, New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs
"Having spent decades at the forefront of discovery and research, Andrew H. Knoll has been one of our planet's leading scientists. In A Brief History of Earth, Knoll treats us to a 4.6-billion-year detective story revealing the origins and inner workings of our home in the solar system. In these pages you'll discover something profound: how our past, present, and future are grounded in Planet Earth." — Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish and Some Assembly Required
"Covers the arc of our planet’s history from its earliest formation to the present day in a succinct and deftly-written way." — Forbes
“Charts the planet’s history in accessible style, from its beginning as ‘a small planet accreted out of rocky debris circling a modest young star’ through the development of minerals, geographical formations, atmosphere, and life forms large and small.” — Associated Press
"Skillfully condenses the history of the Earth. ... An expert primer on the history of everything." — Kirkus Reviews
"A sublime chronicle of our planet’s formation and beginnings, the perhaps unlikely yet awe-inspiring interactions that created life, diverse and abundant, and mass extinctions and recoveries. Knoll skillfully presents the extreme conditions, violence, and delicate fragility that mark the cycles and evolution of our home." — Booklist (starred review)
"The type of book that is sorely needed at this moment in history. ... Knoll assembles facts from a wide variety of fields to tell our planet’s story in a clear and accessible narrative." — Scientific Inquirer
“An eloquent call to action.” — CNN.com
"In spite of its sweeping scale, the Harvard geologist and natural history professor’s primer not only makes the titular four billion years understandable – his accessible expertise makes it interesting." — Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Steve Brusatte
A fantastic distillation of Earth's history, from one of the world’s leading geologists: Andrew H. Knoll has written an engrossing, witty, and eminently readable romp through our home planet’s 4.5 billion years, from trilobites and dinosaurs to human origins and our rapidly changing modern times.
Booklist (starred review)
"A sublime chronicle of our planet’s formation and beginnings, the perhaps unlikely yet awe-inspiring interactions that created life, diverse and abundant, and mass extinctions and recoveries. Knoll skillfully presents the extreme conditions, violence, and delicate fragility that mark the cycles and evolution of our home."
Forbes
"Covers the arc of our planet’s history from its earliest formation to the present day in a succinct and deftly-written way."
Neil Shubin
"Having spent decades at the forefront of discovery and research, Andrew H. Knoll has been one of our planet's leading scientists. In A Brief History of Earth, Knoll treats us to a 4.6-billion-year detective story revealing the origins and inner workings of our home in the solar system. In these pages you'll discover something profound: how our past, present, and future are grounded in Planet Earth."
Associated Press
Charts the planet’s history in accessible style, from its beginning as ‘a small planet accreted out of rocky debris circling a modest young star’ through the development of minerals, geographical formations, atmosphere, and life forms large and small.”
Scientific Inquirer
"The type of book that is sorely needed at this moment in history. ... Knoll assembles facts from a wide variety of fields to tell our planet’s story in a clear and accessible narrative."
CNN.com
An eloquent call to action.”
AUGUST 2021 - AudioFile
Andrew Knoll, a Harvard professor and researcher in geology and paleontology, covers a lot of ground in just five hours of listening. But Tom Parks’s pacing of the narrative never feels rushed during this primer on the origins of life, geological catastrophes, and mass extinctions, continuing right up to our current climate crisis. Knoll has an approachable writing style; only occasionally does he lapse into textbook jargon that will be a challenge for those without a science background. Parks navigates the technical language well, and while this isn’t a breezy listen, it’s an accessible and enlightening look at the geological, chemical, and human forces that have shaped our planet’s evolution. D.B. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2021-01-19
A geologist skillfully condenses the history of the Earth.
A Harvard professor of natural history and Earth and planetary sciences, Knoll begins when the Earth coalesced from dust and rocks circling the sun. Animals more complex than bacteria do not appear until the halfway point of the book, but few readers will complain. Good evidence for the Earth’s age did not appear until the 20th century, when measuring the decay of radioactive uranium revealed its age at 4.6 billion years. Rocks raining down generated enough heat to keep the Earth molten. By the time it cooled around 4 billion years ago, two substances we take for granted, water and oxygen, were missing. Water arrived from meteorites, which continue to fall, although less often than in previous millennia. Knoll engagingly recounts the theories of how life began along with the startling fact that evidence of microbial life appeared soon after the Earth cooled. It’s possible that life is not a lucky accident but inevitable once certain conditions are present. In the absence of oxygen, primitive organisms lived off alternate sources of energy such as sulfur or iron, which existed in the oceans and hot springs. More than 1 billion years passed before cyanobacteria evolved to extract energy from sunlight and water. This process of photosynthesis produced oxygen, leading eventually to the “Great Oxygenation Event” that marginalized older life forms but jump-started evolution because respiration using oxygen yields far more energy. After another 3 billion years, more complex organisms appeared. Early animals date from 500 million to 600 million years ago. Fish appeared at around 450 million years ago and began walking on land 100 million years later. In later chapters, Knoll speeds up the narrative but maintains a focus on geology as he proceeds through dinosaurs, mammals, continent migration, and catastrophic mass extinctions. Of course, the author’s study of humans dominates the closing section, which recounts hominid evolution and the dismal details of how we are making a mess of things.
An expert primer on the history of everything.
