Product Description

"A splendid introduction to geology and paleontology for the lay reader. To compress Earth′s history into a single, lucidly written volume is a major achievement."––Publishers Weekly, starred review.

"Few people have both the knowledge and the writing ability to capture such a long and varied history in a compelling manner. In A Short History of Planet Earth, J.D. Macdougal demonstrates that he is one of the few."––Earth.

This exhilarating survey of the four and half billion years of Earth′s history charts both the geological and biological history of the planet. It moves from the origin of the earth′s iron core to the formation of today′s seven continents, and from the primordial building blocks of life to the evolution of the human form.

J.D. MACDOUGALL (San Diego, California) is a professor of earth science at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute of the University of California, San Diego, the premier center for earth science research in the U.S. His work has appeared in Scientific American and the McGraw–Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #292214 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 266 pages

From the Back Cover
Critical acclaim for A SHORT HISTORY OF PLANET EARTH

"To compress Earth′s history into a single, lucidly written volume is a major achievement." ––Publishers Weekly.

"If you want a readable and up–to–date account of what′s known about Earth, this will do nicely." ––Focus.

"Few people have both the knowledge and the writing ability to capture such a long and varied history in a compelling manner. In A Short History of Planet Earth, J. D. Macdougall demonstrates that he is one of the few. The author excels in explaining the complex interaction between the geologic and biologic aspects of our planet′s history." ––Earth.

About the Author
J. D. MACDOUGALL is Director of the Program in Earth Sciences at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of over one hundred articles in leading professional journals, including Scientific American, and has contributed to the McGraw–Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology.

Customer Reviews

Well organized, well written! Heir to Carl Sagan?
My title above pretty much says it all! There is a good flow to the way one paragraph flows into another. I am a layman with an interest in the integrated "big systems" of science--how processes studied by several disciplines come together and attempt to explain how our planet works. This book does that to the point I may want to go on to more specialized, in-depth works. Chapter Ten, "Global Catastrophes" is the clearest account I have ever read of mass extinction theories. I had not realized that the now very famous K-T boundary event of 65 million years ago (the dinosaur killer) is the only extinction event uncovered in the last 600 million years where the "smoking gun" of extraterrestrial iridium can be found in enough abundence to point to a comet or asteroid impact. I had thought that there was evidence to show that there were incoming impactors every 26 million years or so and that this had caused other mass extinctions including the biggest one at the Permian-Triassic boundary some 250 million years ago. These other mass extinctions may very well have come about because of purely earth-bound processes such as plate tectonics and rising and falling sea levels. Fascinating stuff to say the least! Drawings and diagrams are well done and to the point also. I recommend MacDougall as heir apparent to the Late, Great Carl Sagan as a popularizer of the great realm of science! Enjoy!

Great Book
Hugely enjoyable read written at just the right level for the intelligent layman, not too much scientific babble but enough to give you an understanding of how we know as much as we do about our planet's history.
Every chapter held my attention fully.