In What on Earth Happened?, Christopher Lloyd tells our story from the very beginning of time to the present day, taking giant narrative leaps across millennia and continents. Along the way, he explains exactly how Muslim conquest gave Spain its paella, how the Earth's collision with another young planet created the moon, how dragonflies the size of seagulls emerged out of the prehistoric waters, and how the Big Bang can be detected in your television. Accessible and endlessly entertaining, this massive book draws on disciplines as wide-ranging as astrophysics and anthropology and will appeal to experts, amateur enthusiasts and the simply curious alike. Completed by 250 colourful photographs, maps, historic paintings, engravings and specially commissioned illustrations, What on Earth Happened? takes an entertaining and informed sideways look at the last 13.7 billion years in the life of our universe. Do you know What on Earth Happened? Test your knowledge of the earth in a five minute quiz at www.whatonearthhappened.com
What on earth Happened?In Brief
and over 1.5 million other books are available for Amazon Kindle . Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more. |
Book Description
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Review
"A charming book.... remarkably far-reaching and even-handed" -- The Sunday Times (Ed King)
"An entertaining and accessible narrative takes in all disciplines from astrophysics to anthropology to give inquisitive minds a rounded perspective on the events that have shaped our world". 9/10
-- Press Association (Lucy Christie)
"The compelling idea behind this book is to provide a history of the planet in one colourful and "easy-to-read" volume. Written by a former technology correspondent, it is an antidote to the mini-histories we learned at school that prevent us understanding the evolution of natural history...The result is remarkably far-reaching and even handed." -- The Sunday Times (Ed King)
"This book should be on every child's Christmas list...." -- BBC Breakfast (Bill Turnbull)
"This book should be on every child's Christmas list...."
-- BBC Breakfast (Bill Turnbull)
`This snappy history of our planet tells you something new on virtually every page'
-- Independent
"An entertaining and accessible narrative takes in all disciplines from astrophysics to anthropology to give inquisitive minds a rounded perspective on the events that have shaped our world". 9/10
-- Press Association (Lucy Christie)
"The compelling idea behind this book is to provide a history of the planet in one colourful and "easy-to-read" volume. Written by a former technology correspondent, it is an antidote to the mini-histories we learned at school that prevent us understanding the evolution of natural history...The result is remarkably far-reaching and even handed." -- The Sunday Times (Ed King)
"This book should be on every child's Christmas list...." -- BBC Breakfast (Bill Turnbull)
"This book should be on every child's Christmas list...."
-- BBC Breakfast (Bill Turnbull)
`This snappy history of our planet tells you something new on virtually every page'
-- Independent
Review
"This book should be on every child's Christmas list...."
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful
By TPW
Format:Hardcover
Who say's history is boring? Here we learn how past history will shape things to come...
Christopher Lloyd's book is a complete walk through of history from the big bang to the present day.
Providing history with such a holistic overview is a powerful reason to buy this book and should be a 'must have' item for every Year 7 school child in the UK studying history. It provides the reader with a true sense of history over time and space and the interrelationship with the natural environment - something that most children don't get an appreciation of in school. (I should know being an ex-teacher!)
The flexibility of the book is something that stands out - on the one hand it is an excellent reference book that will not date, on the other hand the author's easy and amusing narrative style makes this also a very easy "pick up and read when you like" coffee table book!
For me, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read from cover to cover. A gift for any occassion that will not fail to disappoint.
Christopher Lloyd's book is a complete walk through of history from the big bang to the present day.
Providing history with such a holistic overview is a powerful reason to buy this book and should be a 'must have' item for every Year 7 school child in the UK studying history. It provides the reader with a true sense of history over time and space and the interrelationship with the natural environment - something that most children don't get an appreciation of in school. (I should know being an ex-teacher!)
The flexibility of the book is something that stands out - on the one hand it is an excellent reference book that will not date, on the other hand the author's easy and amusing narrative style makes this also a very easy "pick up and read when you like" coffee table book!
For me, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read from cover to cover. A gift for any occassion that will not fail to disappoint.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By Mrs. R. Mann
Format:Hardcover
Want to understand what happened from the Big Bang onwards? This book is not only a joy to read, it is wonderfully informative and fascinating, especially to the non-scientific mind. I simply couldn't bear to part with it. Having renewed it three times at my library and read through it twice, I'll now happily invest in my own copy for future use and reference.
I'd never heard of the collision of planets Earth and Theia. Nor of a volcano that erupted for over a million years, that contributed to the Permian mass extinction; nor the crashing of the Indian plate into Asia, creating the Himalayas. Later in the book, I read about Ashoka, the Indian King, who spread the ideals of Buddhism throughout Asia; learned about Hammurabi, King of Babylon, who almost 4,000 years ago, established the legal principle that an accused is innocent until proven guilty.
I always wondered how scientists used carbon dating until this book explained it. I marvelled at the picture of what looked like a 'modern' work of art: the Venus of Willendorf, created some 24,000 years ago. How is it possible that Eratosthenes, hundreds of years before Christ, managed correctly to calculate the circumference of the earth?
I could go on, as every page contains gems of information that I wish I could fix in my mind.
Congratulations, Christopher Lloyd. Your book is a masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.
I'd never heard of the collision of planets Earth and Theia. Nor of a volcano that erupted for over a million years, that contributed to the Permian mass extinction; nor the crashing of the Indian plate into Asia, creating the Himalayas. Later in the book, I read about Ashoka, the Indian King, who spread the ideals of Buddhism throughout Asia; learned about Hammurabi, King of Babylon, who almost 4,000 years ago, established the legal principle that an accused is innocent until proven guilty.
I always wondered how scientists used carbon dating until this book explained it. I marvelled at the picture of what looked like a 'modern' work of art: the Venus of Willendorf, created some 24,000 years ago. How is it possible that Eratosthenes, hundreds of years before Christ, managed correctly to calculate the circumference of the earth?
I could go on, as every page contains gems of information that I wish I could fix in my mind.
Congratulations, Christopher Lloyd. Your book is a masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a fabulous book ... an important book ... not just a history book but something that gives a fantastic perspective, a glimpse of how we got here. The narrative flows through key points of the story of planet, the life on the planet and critically how humans fit into this story in the extraordinarily brief moment we've been
around. It weaves together the disparate bits of knowledge you may have along with much that probably you don't know into something that connects & illuminates. The whole is even greater than the sum of the parts ... indeed it is quite a moving experience at times and certainly enormously stimulating and relevant to many of the big questions we ask; both philosphical, political and simply everyday curiousities.
The book also has user friendly lay out making it easy to use as a reference or a good read. There are top ten lists e.g. key events, people, fruits & seeds, creatures etc and time is condensed & colour coded onto a 24hr clock. Eye opening and working on a number of different levels, I can thoroughly recommend this to everyone.What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day
around. It weaves together the disparate bits of knowledge you may have along with much that probably you don't know into something that connects & illuminates. The whole is even greater than the sum of the parts ... indeed it is quite a moving experience at times and certainly enormously stimulating and relevant to many of the big questions we ask; both philosphical, political and simply everyday curiousities.
The book also has user friendly lay out making it easy to use as a reference or a good read. There are top ten lists e.g. key events, people, fruits & seeds, creatures etc and time is condensed & colour coded onto a 24hr clock. Eye opening and working on a number of different levels, I can thoroughly recommend this to everyone.What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 25 reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A genuine WORLD history
This books is an incredible endevour. It basically manages to cover all history from the beginning of time onwards and does great job of compacting all that history down into 300... Read more
Published 2 months ago by William Axtell
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great book
If history lessons at school had been based on this book, I would have found them interesting.
I found the one star reviews quite strange. Read more
I found the one star reviews quite strange. Read more
Published 9 months ago by mossman
1.0 out of 5 stars
Banal
This banal book is written in the most irritating folksy fashion, filled with cliches, conjectures and sweeping assumptions. Unsupportable myths are presented as facts. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Grehan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Dangerous Propaganda
I bought this book for my children and thought that I would read it in advance. Glad I did. Pretty shocking stuff and if this is representative of the type of propaganda our... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Fubar
5.0 out of 5 stars
What on Earth Happened
Easy to understand following our history from the Big Bang, down through the ages of evolution and up to the present day
Published 19 months ago by Lizzie
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent overview of a history of the world
This is an excellent book that explains how we got to be where we are right now. Most history is taught from a single perspective (European/Chinese/American) or in chunks (world... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mizza
5.0 out of 5 stars
A caveat for Kindle readers
I have no need to add to the reviews of this fantastic book - except to warn you that it may change your life!
But I would suggest that you don't try to read it on Kindle. Read more
But I would suggest that you don't try to read it on Kindle. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Josquine
5.0 out of 5 stars
Earth Simplified
It's written so concisely and simply that anyone, I mean 'anyone' can understand what happened from the assumed beginning of Time. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Randy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Postive Feedback
A superb condensed and chronological history of the world. Geography of a fine calibre! A delight for anyone with an interest in the world and our future. Read more
Published on 13 Nov 2009 by Andy Turner
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good...but
I found my opinion on this book swinging from negative to positive and back again as I read it. This is an excellent HISTORY book, but it's very weak when it comes to an... Read more
Published on 4 Oct 2009 by Mr. C. Blyth
Listmania!
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
