- Paperback: 696 pages
- Publisher: FSG Adult; Reprint edition (Jan 1 1984)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0374518734
- ISBN-13: 978-0374518738
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 15.4 x 4.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 885 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#15,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Earth Sciences > Geology
- #19 in Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Geology
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
In 1978 New Yorker magazine staff writer John McPhee set out making notes for an ambitious project: a geological history of North America, centered, for the sake of convenience, on the 40th parallel, a history that encompasses billions of years. In 1981 he published the first of the four books that would come from his research: Basin and Range, a study of the mountainous lands between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas. Two years later came In Suspect Terrain, a grand overview of the Appalachian mountain system. In 1986 McPhee released Rising from the Plains, a history of the Rocky Mountains set largely in Wyoming. And in 1993 came Assembling California, a survey of the area geologists find to be a laboratory of volcanic and tectonic processes, a place where geology can be watched in the making. Annals of the Former World gathers these four volumes, which McPhee always conceived of as a whole, to make that epic of the Earth's formation; to it he adds a fifth book, Crossing the Craton, which introduces the continent's ancient core, underlying what is now Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.
McPhee's great virtue as a journalist covering the sciences--and any other of the countless subjects he has taken on, for that matter--is his ability to distill and explain complex matters: here, for example, the processes of mineral deposition or of plate tectonics. He does so by allowing geologists to speak for themselves and an entertaining lot they are, those sometimes odd men and women who puzzle out the landscape for clues to its most ancient past. Annals of the Former World is a magisterial work of popular science for which geologists--and devotees of good writing--will be grateful. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Publishers Weekly
A feast for all John McPhee fans, this major book incorporates some of the author's best work on geology into a comprehensive tour de force. Those familiar with McPhee's writing on the subject of geology will know that his narrative includes not only scientific theory but also portraitures of his geologic guides. While the majority of this material has appeared in the New Yorker and in books such as Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain and Rising from the Plains, the collection, which includes 20,000 new words, is much more than a recycling of past writing. As McPhee says, "The text has been meshed, melded, revised, in some places cut, and everywhere studied for repetition." McPhee's many fans won't be disappointed with the high-quality descriptive portraits of geologists, their work and theories. Since the writing follows McPhee's previous works and not any set geography or geologic logic, the author has provided what he calls a "Narrative Table of Contents," which not only describes each section in turn but the theories discussed in it. In this near flawless compilation of ambitious and expansive scope, McPhee's personalized style remains consistent and triumphant: "Ebbets Field, where they buried the old Brooklyn Dodgers, was also on the terminal moraine. When a long-ball hitter hit a long ball, it would land on Bedford Avenue and bounce down the morainal front to roll toward Coney Island on the outwash plain. No one in Los Angeles would ever hit a homer like that." 25 maps, not seen by PW.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The poles of the earth have wandered. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The poles of the earth have wandered. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Received as a treasured gift, honored by it.,
By Robert (Westcliffe, Colorado) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: Annals Of The Former World (Paperback)
After daily driving the humpbacked esker from Rangeley to Kingfield Maine with a former student, who was tuned in to my love of the geological processes shaping our world, he gave me McPhee's Annals of the Former World. It was a touching gift that I treasure still, and I read it all. When I moved from Maine to Colorado, I made it a point to use I-80 for as much of the trip as I could, and kept the book in the front seat with me, stopping for breaks to appreciate the work even more. This book is a wonder of writing about a subject almost too large to fit between its covers, yet McPhee has done it. Excellent for any amateur who appreciates the great forces acting on our planet, and who does not see every quake and tremor as signs of impending apocolypse, but rather an ongoing reshaping of our beautiful planet.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lost,
By A Customer
Ce commentaire est de: Annals Of The Former World (Paperback)
I was immediately turned off by the writing style used by the author, the unexplained jargon, and the constantly shifting references to places with geologic features of interest. I'm normally a paitent reader, but I dropped this book after 30 pages. Here is one sentence from the book. "She has almost never slept under a roof, nor can she imagine why anyone on such a journey would want or need to; she "scopes out" her campsites in the late-failing light with strong affection for national forests and less for the three-dollar campgrounds where you roll out your Ensolite between two trailers, where gregarious trains honk like Buicks, and Harleys on instruments climb escarpments in the night." I found this to be very a awkward writing style. I guess the author was trying to set a mood, but I was simply at a lose to me moved by the oblique references and jerky style.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Open the world before your eyes - literally,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Annals Of The Former World (Paperback)
John McPhee labored for decades on this book. He loves the topic and he brings it alive with his superb writing. I'll never forget the Wyoming geologist, Mr. Love.
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