The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms [Paperback]

Amy Stewart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2005

“Engrossing” (The Christian Science Monitor), “fascinating” (TimeOut New York), “delightfully nuanced” (Entertainment Weekly), “terrific” (New York Newsday), “inspiring” (Bust magazine). “You know a book is good when you actually welcome one of those howling days of wind and sleet that makes going out next to impossible” (The New York Times).

The Earth Moved has moved reviewers across the country. In witty, offbeat style, Amy Stewart takes us on a subterranean adventure and introduces us to our planet’s most important gatekeeper: the humble earthworm. It’s true that the earthworm is small, spineless, and blind, but its effect on the ecosystem is profound,moving Charles Darwin to devote his last years to studying its remarkable attributes and achievements.

With the august scientist as her inspiration, Stewart investigates the earthworm’s astonishing realm, talks to oligochaetologists who have devoted their lives to unearthing the complex web of life beneath our feet, and observes the thousands of worms in her own garden. Stewart’s “ease in gliding from worms to plants to humans will remind readers of John McPhee’s essays on canoes, oranges, the geology of America” (Providence Journal). “Stewart’s book paddles along in [Rachel] Carson’s wake. Read her book and you’ll start to see how the rhododendron bed in front of your house is a kind of Mars for frontier science” (The Boston Globe).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even Charles Darwin found the lowly earthworm fascinating: all their tiny individual labors in tilling the soil and nourishing it with their droppings add up over time to a massive collective impact on the landscape. In this absorbing, if occasionally gross, treatise, gardening journalist Stewart (From the Ground Up) delves into their dank subterranean world, detailing their problem-solving skills, sex lives (Darwin noted their "sexual passion") and shocking ability to re-grow a whole body from a severed segment (scientists have even sutured together parts of three different earthworms into a single Frankenworm). Intriguing in their own right, earthworms stand at the fulcrum of the balance of nature. In the wrong place, they can devastate forests, but in the right place, they boost farm yields, suppress pests and plant diseases, detoxify polluted soils and process raw sewage into inoffensive fertilizer; indeed, humanity's first great civilizations may have risen on the backs of earthworms, say some of the creature's most fervent champions. Stewart writes in a charming, meditative but scientifically grounded style that is informed by her personal relationship with the worms in her compost bin. In her telling, worms become metaphors-for the English working class, for the process of scientific rumination, for the redemption of death and decay by life and fertility-and serve as a touchstone for exploring the ecological view of things.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-In this fascinating book, readers are taken on a journey underground to see the impact worms have on humans and on our planet. Referring often to Charles Darwin's The Formation ofVegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms, with Observations ofTheir Habits, Stewart educates on the vital role these creatures play in growing crops, how they can neutralize the effects of nuclear waste on soil, and their ability to regenerate new body parts. An avid gardener, the author begins with the worms crawling through her own backyard before visiting them in such destinations as an endangered redwood forest in California, a sewage-treatment plant in San Francisco, a nature preserve in Minnesota, and The Giant Worm Museum in Australia (which is shaped like a 325-foot-long worm). A book that's as enlightening as it is entertaining.-James O. Cahill, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Algonquin Books (March 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565124685
• ISBN-13: 978-1565124684
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.8 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #62,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Biological Sciences > Zoology > Invertebrates
  • #75 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Essays

More About the Author

Amy Stewart is the award-winning author of six books on the perils and pleasures of the natural world, including four New York Times bestsellers, The Drunken Botanist, Wicked Bugs, Wicked Plants, and Flower Confidential. She lives in Eureka, California, where she and her husband own an antiquarian bookstore called Eureka Books and tend a flock of unruly hens in their backyard. She has spent the last few years on arduous research trips through the world's distilleries, wineries, and bars for her latest book, The Drunken Botanist.

She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and many other newspapers and magazines, and has appeared frequently on National Public Radio, CBS Sunday Morning, and--just once--on TLC's Cake Boss. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Horticulture Society's Book Award, and a California Horticultural Society Writer's Award.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Worm Turns Out to Be Fascinating February 27, 2004

By R. Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Even if you aren't a gardener, you probably know that if soil has plenty of earthworms, it is healthy soil. People didn't always know this. It used to be thought that earthworms were parasites, eating at the roots of plants gardeners wanted to flourish. Chief among the instructors that made gardeners change their minds about the humble earthworm was none other than Charles Darwin, who was fascinated by the creatures, experimented on their abilities, and wrote his final book, _The Formation of Vegetable Mould, Through the Action of Worms, With Observations on Their Habits_, in 1881. Darwin's work, and especially his curiosity and his enthusiasm for what worms do for us, run through all the chapters of _The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms_ (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill) by Amy Stewart. It is always good to be reminded of just how much natural history Darwin taught us in yet another field, rather than merely his overarching Theory of Evolution, but as Stewart shows, there are now microscopic and ecological investigations that Darwin could not have dreamed of, all of which convince her (and she will convince any reader) that the humble earthworm is a soil engineer that has made our world the way it is today.

Earthworms till the soil more intimately than any plough. By burrowing, they provide aeration. Earthworm manure (called castings) is highly valued by gardeners, and is even a cash crop for those who raise worms on a large scale. Earthworms promote bacteria in the soil, and most soil bacteria, rather than being bad germs, are useful in such things as converting ammonium to a form of nitrogen that plants can use, and breaking down other complex molecules so roots can absorb them. All that earthworms do has just started to be investigated; they are hard to investigate, because it is hard to see what they are doing without disturbing them, even in laboratory pens. There are species almost everywhere, even in isolated islands, and many of them have yet to be named or investigated. Complete life cycle studies have been done on fewer than a dozen species. Stewart's research has led her to confer with many academic and agricultural types who share her eagerness about her lowly subject. Not all the news is good, because earthworms are not good everywhere. In northern forests, where they are not native, they have been introduced by transplanting non-native plants or by fishermen dumping their unused bait. They are busy destroying the leaf fall that ought to remain on the ground to nurture the ferns, flowers, and seedling trees. But worms do have an important role to play in organic farming, even on large scales, and they can help with the treatment of animal manure or city sewage. At least one scientist has written that in furtherance of agriculture, earthworms are responsible for the development of each of the world's great civilizations.

Stewart herself does little experiments on her worms, from the same admirable sense of curiosity Darwin showed, but she is a gardener rather than a scientist. She knows just how Darwin felt, though, describing her own worms as "companionable creatures - clean, quiet, and hardworking," and from time to time, she brings some up from her own worm compost bin to her study, just to keep her company: "A pot of earthworms on the desk is a pleasant distraction." She has many remarks on her compost bin, into which go all her vegetable food scraps, and newspaper, and out of which come worm castings for her garden. She has a useful appendix to tell how to get going on worm composting yourself, and surely plenty of readers of this happy and informative book will do just that. Even those who don't go that far will have a renewed appreciation for earthworms and for the scientists who have probed the way they make the soil that sustains us.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Extraordinary Treasure of American non-fiction Literature April 23, 2004

By David Dun

Format:Hardcover

This book is receiving raves across the country for good reason. First it is possessed of an undeniable charm in the writers voice that makes you smile along with her both at natures eccentricities and her marvels; second there is a wholeness to the book that makes earthworms relevant to their broader context in the way of an accomplished naturalist; and third it possesses a clarity of thought and simplicity of delivery that gives it the kind of elegance that all great writers strive to achieve. This book will grow because it takes a seemingly lowly subject and spins a tail of greatness. Charles Darwin an icon of modern science was fascinated with earthworms and you will be similarly engaged, (even if like me you're an ordinary Joe operating on a much more basic level) after you have read this wonderful book. Join a host of thinking people across this country, stretch your mind, learn something, and read this treasure of American non-fiction literature.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Captivating Tribute!! January 22, 2004

By Michael Reid Hunter

Format:Hardcover

Amy Stewart has written a spellbinding treatise on EARTHWORMS!
She couples fascinating facts ("one plant in Korea processes eighty tons of sludge every day in a giant earthworm reactor.")with historical research (Charles Darwin's last book was on earthworms) to create an astonishing tribute to one of our most overlooked allies. Ms. Stewart does this with succulent prose that is a joy to read. I've ordered my worms after reading this surprising book, and hope that they enjoy Alaska...

This book is lovely, and the author's enthusiasm shines through! A must read!