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Origins
- How Earth's History Shaped Human History
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
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Publisher's summary
A New York Times best-selling author explains how the physical world shaped the history of our species
When we talk about human history, we often focus on great leaders, population forces, and decisive wars. But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the southeast United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea. Everywhere is the deep imprint of the planetary on the human.
From the cultivation of the first crops to the founding of modern states, Origins reveals the breathtaking impact of the earth beneath our feet on the shape of our human civilizations.
Critic reviews
"Dartnell's story is beautifully written and organized. His infectious curiosity and enthusiasm tug the reader from page to page, synthesizing geology, oceanography, meteorology, geography, palaeontology, archaeology and political history in a manner that recalls Jared Diamond's classic 1997 book Guns, Germs, and Steel." (Nature)
"The perfect blend of science and history. This is a book that will not only challenge our preconceptions about the past, but should make us think very carefully about humanity's future. Five stars." [Mail on Sunday (UK)]
"An original and timely way of looking at human history through the materials and natural resources that our species has employed to such effect. It should be read by everyone who ponders how long exploitation can continue on a finite planet." (Richard Fortey, author of Earth)
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- aaron
- 08-02-20
GREAT Book with a Narrator Who's Falling Asleep
This book is magnificent. It fully embraces many interesting subjects, such as deep time, archaeology, and human evolution.
However, authors and publishers, please, please, PLEASE listen to me:
STOP HIRING NARRATORS WHO WHISPER!!
Seriously, stop it.
This narrator reads entirely in a whisper, and while that may play well for a children's bedtime story or perhaps adult erotica, it has no place whatsoever in a book about science! Science is already an inherently dull subject at times, so the last thing anyone wants is to have a science book read to them by a person who's whispering the entire time. This really, truly is not that complicated. But, since it keeps happening, I'll spell it out for you:
For science books, HIRE ENGAGING, FUN, TALENTED NARRATORS.
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57 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Fernanda Duque
- 10-10-20
An integrative view of (mostly european) societies
Engaging account of how nature has shaped human evolution and its history. Not only does it focus on current phenomena (for example, winds and sea currents), but also on past geologic events, such as the formation of coal in the carboniferous. The book, however, is very eurocentric. It does mention Asia, but mostly in relation to Europe's interests. Barely any mention is given of the civilizations in pre-columbian America or the "Global South" in general.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Tais Helena Schmitt
- 12-03-19
Awesome book that deserves better voice
Loved the book! It is an excellent review of the natural history of our planet, and of the development of the human civilization, with comprehensive review of the geology of the planet. Perhaps the best idea in the book is the suggestion of how cognitive abilities were selected in humans.
The author is a young, vibrant person, and this book deserves a voice that conveys that energy, instead the voice of the reader is old, monotonous and boring. It sounds like an old boring uncle and at times my attention drifted and I had to come back and listen again. Please make an effort to pick a voice that can bring some of the personality of the author! It makes a huge difference! Thanks!
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16 people found this helpful
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- Log Jammin
- 08-01-19
the earth made us
In this professionally read and recorded expertly accessible telling of Earth's history, understand how continental drift, ice ages, sea & air currents, eons of plankton & tree growth and conversion to oil and coal as well as geological formation allowed Homo sapiens to thrive and dominate the current interglacial period. also, hear how geological deposits are underlying modern political rifts. while you learn how and when the continents arrived at their current locations, hear how & why the conditions existed to power the Anthropocene with fossil fuels.
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11 people found this helpful
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- Desert Reader
- 07-06-19
Embarrassingly Biased Storytelling
Despite the author’s factual representation of the evolution of Earth and the joined evolution of our species, his almost sycophantic anthropocentricism biases his interpretation and storytelling to the point where the book almost seems like a work of fiction. Ultimately, his point of view seems to be that following the geology of the Earth, the evolution of our species has been a wondrous blessing for the planet.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Arden
- 01-26-20
Earth history's impact on the modern world
I enjoyed this story of how the earth's geological past impacts how we live today. Interesting, fast-paced, and geared to the interested amateur, I could easily follow the narration. The reader was excellent. Recommended.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Michael T Urban
- 12-23-19
loved it
everything about this is excellent. Facebook at some redundancy 2 a history of life but has many other parts of information that makes it fascinating.
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4 people found this helpful
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- jaga
- 08-27-20
We are more connected than we realize!
This book explains where we came from, what we are and all of the different dimensions of the inter-relationships of all organisms on earth. Dartnell does a fantastic job explaining all of this, with detailed geological, biological and social explanations for how we got to now, including the present climate crisis. Would love to see this tied into a forward looking analysis of where we go from here.
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2 people found this helpful
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- OO
- 10-02-19
Compelling
The compelling story of how the physical development of the Earth shaped human civilization’s growth and spread. Fascinating!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Uhru
- 07-19-19
Geology The Traction To Civilization
Fascinating tale of how geology is the traction to civilization. A little less redundancy in the telling perhaps?
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2 people found this helpful
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- Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
- By: Andrew H. Knoll
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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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 21st-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.
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Very chilling and well thought out
- By Colin Bump on 05-21-21
By: Andrew H. Knoll
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The Knowledge
- How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch
- By: Lewis Dartnell
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.
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We might be screwed, but... science!
- By Ryan on 11-28-15
By: Lewis Dartnell
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The Story of Earth
- The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet
- By: Robert M. Hazen
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Earth evolves. From first atom to molecule, mineral to magma, granite crust to single cell to verdant living landscape, ours is a planet constantly in flux. In this radical new approach to Earth’s biography, senior Carnegie Institution researcher and national best-selling author Robert M. Hazen reveals how the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere - of rocks and living matter - has shaped our planet into the only one of its kind in the Solar System, if not the entire cosmos.
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Makes minerals interesting
- By Gary on 07-31-12
By: Robert M. Hazen
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Symphony in C
- Carbon and the Evolution of (Almost) Everything
- By: Robert M. Hazen
- Narrated by: Paul Brion
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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An enchanting biography of the most resonant - and most necessary - chemical element on Earth. Carbon. It's in the fibers in your hair, the timbers in your walls, the food that you eat, and the air that you breathe. It's worth billions as a luxury and half a trillion as a necessity, but there are still mysteries yet to be solved about the element that can be both diamond and coal. Where does it come from, what does it do, and why, above all, does life need it?
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There is a Caveat
- By Joseph L Contreras on 06-26-19
By: Robert M. Hazen
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Origin
- A Genetic History of the Americas
- By: Jennifer Raff
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau, Jennifer Raff - Interview, Yvonne Russo - Interview
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Origin is the story of who the first peoples in the Americas were, how and why they made the crossing, how they dispersed south, and how they lived based on a new and powerful kind of evidence: their complete genomes. Origin provides an overview of these new histories throughout North and South America, and a glimpse into how the tools of genetics reveal details about human history and evolution.
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Science peppered with PC Nonsense
- By Wallace Kaufman on 05-01-22
By: Jennifer Raff
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Eruption
- The Untold Story of Mount St. Helens
- By: Steve Olson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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For months in early 1980, scientists, journalists, and ordinary people listened anxiously to rumblings in the long quiescent volcano Mount St. Helens. Still, when a massive explosion took the top off the mountain, no one was prepared. Fifty-seven people died, including newlywed logger John Killian (for years afterward, his father searched for him in the ash), scientist Dave Johnston, and celebrated local curmudgeon Harry Truman. The lives of many others were forever changed.
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Nope
- By Prairie Girl on 05-04-18
By: Steve Olson
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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
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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 21st-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.
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Very chilling and well thought out
- By Colin Bump on 05-21-21
By: Andrew H. Knoll
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The Year Without Summer
- 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
- By: William K. Klingaman, Nicholas P. Klingaman
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 11 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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1816 was a remarkable year - mostly for the fact that there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, allowing for excessive rain, frost, and snowfall through much of the Northeastern US and Europe in the summer of 1816.
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Good audiobook to fall asleep to
- By Ellen NB on 02-24-20
By: William K. Klingaman, and others
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Ancient Bones
- Unearthing the Astonishing New Story of How We Became Human
- By: Madelaine Böhme
- Narrated by: Aimée Ayotte
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Africa has long been considered the cradle of life - where life and humans evolved - but somewhere west of Munich, Germany, paleoclimatologist and paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her team make a discovery that is beyond anything they ever imagined: the 12-million-year-old bones of an ancient ape - Danuvius guggenmos - which makes headlines around the world and defies prevailing theories of human history and where human life began.
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Brave Attempt
- By Bill Treat on 10-15-22
By: Madelaine Böhme
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The Great Warming
- Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations
- By: Brian Fagan
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The history of the Great Warming of a half millennium ago suggests that we may yet be underestimating the power of climate change to disrupt our lives todayand our vulnerability to drought, writes Fagan, is the silent elephant in the room.
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Good book but unpracticed, disjointed narration.
- By Paul on 09-12-10
By: Brian Fagan
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Origins
- The Search for Our Prehistoric Past
- By: Frank H. T. Rhodes
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In Origins, Frank H. T. Rhodes explores the origin and evolution of living things, the changing environments in which they have developed, and the challenges we now face on an increasingly crowded and polluted planet. Rhodes argues that the future well-being of our burgeoning population depends in no small part on our understanding of life's past, its long and slow development, and its intricate interdependencies.
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poorly written overview of evolutionary biology
- By Corvin Rok on 09-06-20
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Tree Story
- The History of the World Written in Rings
- By: Valerie Trouet
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Trouet, a leading tree-ring scientist, takes us out into the field, from remote African villages to radioactive Russian forests, offering listeners an insider's look at tree-ring research, a discipline formally known as dendrochronology. Tracing her own professional journey while exploring dendrochronology's history and applications, Trouet describes the basics of how tell-tale tree cores are collected and dated with ring-by-ring precision, explaining the unexpected and momentous insights we've gained from the resulting samples.
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tree books rule!
- By DragonsWynd on 02-09-22
By: Valerie Trouet
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A Most Improbable Journey
- A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
- By: Walter Alvarez
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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