A Brief History of Earth

Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

By: Andrew H. Knoll

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard’s acclaimed geologist.

“A sublime chronicle of our planet." (Booklist, starred review)

Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet of ice, rocked by a nearby meteor strike, or perhaps choked by poison gases, drowned beneath ocean, perched atop a mountain range, or roamed by fearsome monsters. Probably most or even all of the above. 

The story of our home planet and the organisms spread across its surface is far more spectacular than any Hollywood blockbuster, filled with enough plot twists to rival a bestselling thriller. But only recently have we begun to piece together the whole mystery into a coherent narrative. Drawing on his decades of field research and up-to-the-minute understanding of the latest science, renowned geologist Andrew H. Knoll delivers a rigorous yet accessible biography of Earth, charting our home planet's epic 4.6 billion-year story. Placing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Andrew H. Knoll (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Great if you believe in Darwinism

Unfortunately, this book is based on facts without grasping the WHY how nature works. Troubled conclusions.

Save our Planet!

Very easy to listen to, and quite fascinating! I probably took more information in about our Earth from this, more so than I ever did sitting in a classroom, ha! Recommended listen for those who dig history and science, I loved it!

Very interesting and great writing.

The content is intriguing and well written. The narration - not so much. The narrator accent was not pleasing and his voice overly sibilant. I know the producersssss of this audiobook have accesssss to sibilancssse filtersssss. The narrator's accent was a bit annoying especially talking about "syamples from the myantle reveal a dynyamic core."

A good one

I’m not an expert in geology, but I like the subject and already learned a few about this. For this reason, this book suited me very well. It is a beginner book, but departures from a a point where it assumes you paid attention on your science classes.

The author is very didactical and the book chronology helps the understanding. Good one, I’d recommend it.

Fantastic book and production

I was looking for a concise yet thorough summary of the biological and geological history of Earth. I can't imagine a better fitting book for this purpose.

Fascinating, educational, and even inspirational with the section at the end about climate change. Not necessary to have a scientific background, but if you remember a bit of high school chemistry and biology the book has so much to offer.

Audio Version Doesn't Work

You cannot visualize anything the way it is written. The audio just becomes noise. Maybe it is the subject matter, but I think it is the writing.

Fascinating and Easy to Read/Listen to

The book was written so that those of us without a strong science background would enjoy it and learn a lot. It provides an updated understanding of earth’s history based on discoveries and studies in recent decades. I found it fascinating and easy to read/listen to.

A lot of Earth History Briefly

Well done and fascinating information. The author is clearly deeply educated about this subject. the most interesting part of his presentation is the "differing points of view" so many scientists have about how we got to this point in time.

But most scientists agree we could be in for a rocky ( no punk intended ) future in a very short time.

Very Good Book!

The author put the information in an easy way to understand the information. You don't need to be a scientist to understand and appreciate the earth's history and our impact on it at this time in it's history.

Very interesting and informative

All the highlights of over 4 billion years in Geology and Paleontology by an expert