Uncover the Fascinating Story of Our Planet: A Comprehensive Look at Earth's 4 Billion Year History Across 8 Chapters

David B. Carpenter: Up to date, extremely readable and full of valuable new insights.

United Kingdom on Mar 07, 2024

DrBones: History of the last 4 billion years in an easily readable format. Ends with a severe but justified warning about Global Warming.

United States on Feb 14, 2024

John R. Patrick: I loved the early descriptions of earth history but grew weary reading the doom and glooms of his final opinions regarding modern farming practices and global warming fears.

United States on Nov 16, 2023

equanimity: A concise and comprehensive overview. Highly recommendable.

Germany on Sep 26, 2023

Riccardo: Libro molto interessante per sviluppare una conoscenza generale sulla storia della terra e della vita da approfondire in seguito. La lettura è agevolata da facili esempi e metafore fatte dall'autore.

Italy on Sep 10, 2023

Goose: I thoroughly enjoyed the book primarily because of the great storytelling skills that Andrew Knoll has. The subject, if delivered pedantically, might have been very boring. However, Andrew does a great job in keeping the information relevant and fascinating. I also learned a great deal on the way. For example, I did not realize that the increase in the oxygen level in the air was not significant after the cyanobacteria did its magic. I was under the impression that the molecular oxygen level rapidly rose in a few millenia to the current level.

The best chapter was the last one. The author does a great job of conveying the importance of taking action against global warming, tying the story back to the subject he covered in previous chapters. While doing that, he does not subject the deniers to shame or treat them condescendingly. I believe that's our best bet forward. If we try to shame the climate change deniers, all we will land up doing is having them put up a wall and deny what they see even more strongly.

United States on Aug 29, 2023

J. Waingortin: Quick read, short and to the point. It is a very high level summary of all the geological knowledge digested for the non initiated. Written by a top expert.

This book is for you if you want to learn how the Earth formed, what forces are at play defining how the Earth behaves, it’s climate, it’s past and it’s future, without going into too much detail.

This book is not for you if are looking for in-depth analysis backed by equations, detailed lab test results and experiments .

Canada on Jul 12, 2023

Suresh yogiSuresh yogi: The media could not be loaded.  Very nice book can read by all the age group

India on Jul 07, 2023

Kindle Customer: Andrew Knoll's book is an excellent summary of the science and history of life on earth along with the related geological and climate history. There is also an excellent and extensive explanation of evidence to support the theories and conventional beliefs. It was an enjoyable and educational read. The last chapter, while good, left me a bit wanting. I would have liked to see more of a discussion on the various approaches to solving the climate change problem. Climate economists such as Nordhaus and Lonborg advocate an emphasis on research and development as the best bang for the buck in tackling the problem long-term. There is also a good discussion to be had on what is the best type of energy to replace fossil fuel energy. Granted, the focus of the book was earth history and not climate policy. But, it would be good to promote a non-polarized discussion on policy. It's not just about alarmists vs deniers. There are constructive debates to be had on means and methods.

United States on May 10, 2023

Cordelia S. Munroe: This is perhaps the best popular science book I have read in the past 5 years. The topic, the links between the evolution of earth's geology and biosphere, is one that has not been often covered, the writing is clear and the style (for me, at least) is very congenial.

Some might regard this as very basic, while others find it dense and overladen with facts. However, the author, an expert in this subject (with a long career at Harvard to his credit), does a remarkable job in presenting a complex series of topics. He does so with great brevity with only the minimum of detail needed to construct a coherent picture.

The organization of the book, "4 billion years in eight chapters," takes the the form of an elegant sequence of chapters entitled "Chemical Earth," "Physical Earth," "Biological Earth," "Oxygen Earth," "Animal Earth," "Green Earth," "Catastrophic Earth," and "Human Earth."

These develop the motivating theme, our existence on earth and the biosphere we depend on is in critical danger. Perhaps to many this message has become dull with repetition, but Andrew Knoll's treatment of it is fresh and convincing. As he quotes Baba Dioum in the Prologue, ""we...

United States on Oct 13, 2021