Origins

How Earth's History Shaped Human History

By: Lewis Dartnell

Narrated by: John Sackville

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.

©2019 Lewis Dartnell (P)2019 Hachette Audio

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)

One valley in Africa

All of covilization from antiquity to modernity is from the resources the Earth provides and the challenges it has created for humanity. In facing our current climate challenge, we see in the Earth history a forecast for what will come if we do not meet this challenge. The Earth will be find, life will still exist, but all of the conditions that made human civilization thrive will be extinguished for millions of years.

This book is striking in how it tells the history of the planet and how we got here. Take a look at the extra material from the publisher’s website for maps and teaching aids

Great work

I loved this book. Never really thought about the way he describes our human evolution, but it’s a fascinating timeline.

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.

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.

Geology The Traction To Civilization

Fascinating tale of how geology is the traction to civilization. A little less redundancy in the telling perhaps?

Excelente

De una entretenida manera el autor explica las varoables que moldearon el desarrollo de nuestra especie.

Good Perspective

This book puts a good perspective on where we are now, where we came from, and and how the Earth and it's climate have shaped Humans from billions of years before their existence.

Interesting, analytical yet lacking

Good narrator. Good scientific analysis and easy to follow. Author seemingly tiptoed through the abhorrent history of colonization in an attempt to be impartial but failed to do so as the book spends significantly more time aggrandizing colonial prowess than it does critically examining the damage it has caused. Similarly I was disappointed by the lackluster tone surrounding the current climate crisis.

a well-explained summary of how the planet made us

a fascinating review of how the unique characteristics of our planet resulted in our Evolution and continued Mastery of the planet.

Very informative

This book had a soothing narrator. It was an easy listen. I liked how nicely the ideas were interwoven.