10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The History of...well, everything, October 31, 2008
This review is from: What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life, and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day (Hardcover)
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The Gist: Easy to read summary of all of history, with key details and dates, entertaining stories, trivia, good index, and illustrations/photos.
Reading Level: Very easy. Works for adults and teens. G-rated material
The Audience: 1. Those who want to refresh those high school or college in-depth courses in biology, evolution, anthropology, or any period of human history. 2. Those who are generally curious and just want the "big picture" of how everything on earth came to be.
The Full Review:
Here's the challenge: Summarize 13.7 BILLION years of history. And do it in 400 pages. "What on Earth?" accepts that challenge, and the result is a text that is readable (although a bit simple), educational, and often entertaining.
Depth? Of course not. Think about it: 13,700,000,000 years in 400 pages? It would not be humanly possible to dive into deep detail. But detail is not the purpose here. The challenge is breadth, not depth, and this book's 50,000-foot view allows you to see the beauty of the forest, rather than the specifics of the trees. (Although I should mention the book does nicely explain how trees came to be.)
The author sets a 24-hour clock as the metaphor. Every page is labeled with the elapsed time since the zero hour of the Big Bang. As the book counts down the hours, minutes, and seconds until present day, the author makes smart choices about what facts to pluck from the infinity of history, starting with Big Bang, when matter is created (00:00). Life itself isn't even a possibility until amino acids appear as a byproduct of climatic upheaval (5:19). Much later, elevated oxygen levels lead to the world's largest creatures (22:24), while a mere 20 "minutes" after that, virtually all animals are wiped out with the Permian Extinction (22:43).
In the remaining 90 minutes of the countdown, history explodes with the re-emergence, ebb, and flow of species as the geography and climate of the earth dictate the fate of living things. Once humans appear, the book becomes a synopsis of physical anthropology and then human history. We humans haven't been here long: the entirety of human history occupies the mere last ten seconds of the countdown. Yet, those ten seconds take fully 300 pages to go from 70,000 BC to 2005 AD, from Homo habilis to the iPod.
A book comprised of historical facts could grow dry. Happily, the author is a journalist as well as historian, and maintains narrative flow by interspersing stories about how key discoveries were made. And the book covers enough firsts, biggests, and oddests to please trivia buffs. (We learn, for example, which animal had the first neck, when the term Christianity first appeared, and the origin of the word "weird.") The drawings and photographs are nice, but are not the strongest point of the book. They are effective in breaking up the text. Other nice touches are a gallery of "Top Ten" lists and an extensive index.
Admittedly, if you want deep detail you won't find it. Some may find the writing style too simple. Some will cry foul because the author treats as fact human-caused global warming. Some won't like that the author accepts Darwinian evolution, or that a secular playing field is set for god(s) and religions.
But in the end, what distinguishes this book is its respect and admiration for way geologic, climatic, biologic, and sociologic forces interact with each other throughout time. Tectonic plates aren't just rocks that move, they are nature's platforms for creating new species. Pre-historic reptiles become the coal that generates the heat that smelts the iron forged into the weapons that conquer societies. The true value of the 50,000-foot level is that the reader can reflect on the elegance of how everything is interconnected.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book for young adults., December 23, 2008
This review is from: What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life, and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day (Hardcover)
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This is an excellent book for young adults, ages 12 through twentyone, maybe. The layout and design of the book is excellent. The font size and color scheme makes for a easy read but alas for adult audiences the material lacks depth, perspective, and the connectivity of history. The writing style is a tad "talk down" for anyone even superfically versed in science and history. Therefore I came to the conclusion that the text is great for the teenager genere. Also being a history of "everything" I did not expect too much depth and the book met my expectations. You will get a 32,000 foot view of some salients of history.
However if you want a quick, easy read on important signposts then this book will suffice. My guess is this book will not be a "keeper" in your library but a text that is not bad and one that is good for a quick perusal.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good for a curious kid, December 24, 2008
This review is from: What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life, and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day (Hardcover)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
We can look anything up on the Internet, and Wikipedia for all its faults provides more details than any one history book can. But what you can't do is place it in context when you just don't yet know the grand sweep of history and evolution. This book provides that. The connections, the flow, the needed perspective. Not really adult reading, but great for curious grade and high school kids. Worth having in the house.
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