- Hardcover: 416 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; First Edition First Impression edition (6 Oct 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747594597
- ISBN-13: 978-0747594598
- Product Dimensions: 24.8 x 19.6 x 4.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 162,235 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
`Compelling ... This charming book ends on a stern word of warning.'
--The Sunday Times
"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)
--The Sunday Times
"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)
Review
"This book should be on every child's Christmas list...."
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
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.
23 of 26 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
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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 4 months ago by Grehan
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 7 months ago by Fubar
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 7 months ago by Lizzie
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 8 months ago by Mizza
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 9 months ago by Josquine
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 10 months ago by Randy
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
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
Great overview
I just loved this book. It reminded me just a little of H G wells' A Short History of the World in that it gives the reader a birds eye view of the world from the big bang until... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2009 by Dr. Kenneth Lancer
Great....for kids
This is an amazing book on history-if your under 13 years of age. I bought this book as im really interested in history and wanted a chronological order of things that have... Read more
Published on 19 July 2009 by Chloe.A.B
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