Origins: How The Earth Made Us

Although I already knew much of the content, the tight linkage between geography and human history was new - and surprisingly deep. The book is written to be accessible to kids under college age, so it's an easy read in that sense. But I've never read a book that focuses on how geography has shaped human history so extensively. Brexit, for example, can be traced back to the megaflood that made Great Britain an island, with all the consequences that have flowed from Great Britain's separation from the European continent. The effects of those floods - there were two of them - can be easily mapped in the English Channel. The book is well suited, too, for just reading a section here and there, according to one's interests. Every page (just about) has an interesting example of what people do being a result of where people live, and where people live being a result of geography.

Dartnell explains how astronomic forces throughout Earth's history created the climate changes that ultimately resulted in our own evolution, how different ways of living have been the result of the geographical locations where societies settled (and why the settled where they did) and how the planet's endless and slow changes affected how these societies interacted with each other. Out of a plethora of variables, tectonic movements seem to be the major engine that resulted in of the world we live in today.Truly a fascinating and original perspective on our planet and our civilization's history. Origins is loaded with intriguing information which at times can be overwhelming but mostly awe provoking. Definitively worth the read, as it rewards you with a gratifying understanding of the amazing world we live in

If you're interested in your planet's astonishing evolution from red hot asteroid to green Eden, and haven't kept up with recent research into Earth's prehistory, you'll appreciate hearing from a science writer who has kept up, and can tell stories about it in prose worthy of Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, or Timothy Ferris.The general theme is of how several billion years of tectonic plate collisions & volcanic upheavals have left their imprint on biological & human history all the way down to maps of current voting fault lines overlaid on maps of geological fault lines. The book has lots of maps, mostly created digitally by the author.My favorite "new" fact is the revelation that ice age ice-dam collapses and their sudden catastrophic floods were not a one time event like the scouring of the Columbia Basin after the instant drainage of prehistoric Lake Missoula when the ice dam collapsed at present day Dixon, MT. The ice ages (I just learned) had many such collapses, sometimes repetitive. A much larger lake covering much of present Scandinavia generated a gigantic flash flood that permanently sundered a substantial land bridge that once connected England to France. (Now there's a geological event with real historical consequences.)One story--about islands--got shaky when the author stepped outside science narrative: In a footnote about the WW2 naval battle of Midway, he attributes the lopsided US victory to bombers flying from the Island. (The damage to the Japanese task force came entirely from carrier-based dive bombers; The land-based heavy bombers scored zero.)That's a goof anyone sequestered in academia surrounded by mountains of science papers could make. Not substantial enough to downgrade a finely written and very informative book.

I loved this book…until I got to the last few pages. After enchanting us with a deeply researched but not pedantic overview of natural history, including the fact that we are now between glaciations, Dartnell succumbs to the hysteria of “climate change” and exhorts us to DO SOMETHING, dammit! I ask, humbly, what species ended the previous periods of global warming and glaciatión? What about your explanation early in the book that these phenomena are attributable to the earths wobble (not to mention sunspot activity). Bottom line: the book is an excellent scientific exposition. Not such a great opinion.

Dartnell's "Origins" is an engagingly written story of the causes and effects of Earth and human histories, and is an excellent example of the "big history" genre done well. However, he has made a fundamental geological error in his description of the origin of magma as the result of plate subduction, and this mistake appears in at least two places in the book.For example, in Chapter 5, on Page 145 in the section "Tectonic Sweat," he writes: "As oceanic crust is suducted, the water-bearing rocks of this descending plate are melted by the considerable pressure and temperature at depths of between 50 and 100 kilometres, while also being heated by the grinding friction as they slide underneath. This molten magma rises up into the overlying crust and pools into huge subterranean chambers."He is attributing the formation of granite intrusions and volcanic arcs above subduction zones to the melting of the subducting plate itself. In fact, most such magmas do not result from melting of the subducting plate, but from partial melting of the mantle rocks ABOVE that plate. This partial melting occurs when water liberated from the subducting plate rises into mantle rocks above the plate, where the melting temperature of those rocks is lowered due to the presence of that water.While I hope that any future editions will correct this error, with this exception, I recommend the book wholeheartedly.

The author brings to light a theme I don't think I've ever considered in detail: How events on a massive scale affected the evolution of man and the development of civilization! Very well researched and written. Of interest to anyone who would agree that we live in an enchanted universe!

What an interesting insight of our lives and how the world influences how and where we live.

its fascinating how geology has shaped human evolution - joining these two subjects in a fascinating way!

Libro interesantissimo, pieno di fatti e informazione ben documentata. Lo raccommando sinceramente per la informazione e come contrapeso a tutti i "Fake News" e catastrofismo di questi giorni, infondato o no!

One of the best book I ever have read on the evolution of human history; starting from the unknowns to the most celebrated kings of modern worlds.A must have read book by every single human being on this planet.Unfortunately, our civilization is going more and more tensed in terms of false propaganda and I'll thoughts. During these times, these books helps us to stay away from the mob and raging crowds. I strongly recommend this book.