The Earth Transformed
An Untold History
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
The Earth Transformed
Buy Now for $37.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Peter Frankopan
-
By:
-
Peter Frankopan
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents The Earth Transformed written and read by Peter Frankopan.
THE TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOK OF 2023
A BOOK OF THE YEAR PICK FOR THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE, GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT AND FINANCIAL TIMES
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK | AN INSTANT #2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
'Humanity has transformed the Earth: Frankopan transforms our understanding of history' Financial Times
'Vast, learned and timely work' Sunday Times
———
From the international bestselling author of The Silk Roads comes a major history of how a changing climate has dramatically shaped the development—and demise—of civilisations across time.
When we think about history, we rarely pay much attention to the most destructive floods, the worst winters, the most devastating droughts or the ways that ecosystems have changed over time.
In The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan, one of the world’s leading historians, shows that the natural environment is a crucial, if not the defining, factor in global history – and not just of humankind. Volcanic eruptions, solar activities, atmospheric, oceanic and other shifts, as well as anthropogenic behaviour, are fundamental parts of the past and the present. In this magnificent and groundbreaking book, we learn about the origins of our species: about the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; about how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; about how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; about how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long and deep history. All provide lessons of profound importance as we face a precarious future of rapid global warming.
Taking us from the Big Bang to the present day and beyond, The Earth Transformed forces us to reckon with humankind’s continuing efforts to make sense of the natural world.
——-
'This is epic, gripping, original history that leaps off the page' Sathnam Sanghera, author of Empireland
'All Historians aiming to tell a narrative face the problem of when exactly to start it. Only Peter Frankopan would go back 2.5 billion years to the Great Oxidation Event' Tom Holland
A 2023 HIGHLIGHT FOR: BBC NEWS * SUNDAY TIMES CULTURE * FINANCIAL TIMES * NEW EUROPEAN * GUARDIAN * NEW STATESMAN * THE TIMES * THE WEEK * WATERSTONES * BLACKWELL'S
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2023 Peter Frankopan (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PlcWhat listeners say about The Earth Transformed
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Robbie
- 11-05-2023
Makes You Think
This is comprehensively researched and presented in a balanced and understandable way. The only criticism is that the author should have had someone else read it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 19-03-2024
Volcanoes and Nuclear destruction
It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine …almost
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 20-01-2024
A critical review of humans’ increasingly precarious relationship with our planet.
The thoughtful and deep analyses linked carefully into a worlwide narrative about our own frighteningly intelligent but ecologically disruptive and perhaps self-destructive species.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story4 out of 5 stars
- DGL
- 17-10-2023
Badly read
I really want to hear this but the reading is so poor that I have put it aside several times. Such a pity!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Simon
- 30-11-2023
Global Scope, Global Perspective, Global Relevance!
Peter Frankopan has produced a fascinating narrative, interweaving such a plethora of disciplines…history, geology, tectonics, anthropology, marine biology, sociology…to name just some of them, and yet does so with clarity, cohesion and compassion. Like so many great works it’s actually hard to express just exactly how utterly brilliant it is.
Phrases like “Should be compulsory reading in schools”, “A roadmap for human survival” and “Why don’t our politicians get it” are all relevant and hint at it’s revelatory significance, but it’s also brilliantly entertaining.
If I have one criticism it’s about pronunciation. With an obviously educated English accent it’s perplexing to hear (I listened on Audible) such (to my ears) irritating things like “nucular” for nuclear and a few other such anomalies. In the end it didn’t stop me from thoroughly enjoying, and endorsing this majestic book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Piha girl
- 27-09-2023
An education
Fascinating and well researched account of the huge impact humans have had on Earths environment - and the effects of climate and geography on human history . Also details some ancient environmental wisdom we need a lot more of in this century.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- JayD
- 23-06-2023
In-depth and thorough examination
An expansive, detailed and thoroughly engaging account of the causes and effects of climate change. It frames the subject as pragmatically as is possible, I think, given the potential for criticism the subject is likely to draw from certain quarters.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- John
- 22-01-2024
Unique, comprehensible perspective
Loved this book. More like the best university class you’ve attended. Loaded with thought provoking insights and fact nuggets. History of the earth from an holistic perspective.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall1 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story2 out of 5 stars
- patrick martin
- 19-11-2023
Stick to History
A great historian but he has bought the woke propaganda from the UN. He mentions the ice cores but fails to mention the fact that CO2 highs follow temperature highs by 600 years. Cause and effect switched. Sad little fool.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!