Annals of the Former World

Yes it was penned for the layman but make no mistake, Annals of the Former World is a comprehensive treatise on North American geology containing enough hard science to surely please even an academic in the field. Writing in a wonderfully disarming anecdotal style, McPhee primarily covers the geology of several parts of the U.S. but also addresses other parts of the world including Europe, southeast Asia, and South America. Also included are mini-biographies of several prominent geologists and other historical figures wrapped in together with the geology material.Although three of the five volumes of this compilation were originally published in the 1980s, I found in doing a bit of web browsing while reading this book that our understanding of the Earth’s plates and their movements over the last few hundred million years hasn’t fundamentally changed since then. Going back further in geologic time, the vision in Annals becomes considerably murkier with the exception perhaps of the coverage of the ancient core of the North American continent in Book 5 (Crossing the Craton). It’s likely that research and field work over the last twenty years has shed more light on the time period of say 250 to 1000 million years ago (mya). It’s possible that we may never have a clear idea of what the Earth’s land masses really looked like before ~1000 mya, due to the unknowns of what became of land that dove into the mantle at subduction zones at so many plate boundaries and so many times over many hundreds of millions of years. In addition, the lack of skeletal vertebrate life before around 400 mya makes the fossil record much spottier before then and hence, the older layers of rock around the world much more difficult to reliably index to each other in time.Annals is easily one of the best books I’ve read. I’m not surprised at all that it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999 in the General Nonfiction category. Over 650 pages but I wish it had been longer!

This book got us through New Year's Eve on the Delaware. We read about the geological formations over millions of years in the very spot we were staying, experienced a rock slide that the book informed us would happen every 6 million years. It was so smart and interesting it defined our weekend. We then went to the Deer Head Inn for dinner and jazz.

Take a field trip through North America's Basin and Range province, stretching East to West from Utah to California and South to North from Mexico to Oregon, and you're in a land being pulled apart by Tectonic Forces to someday becoming an arm jutting out from North America into the Pacific Ocean. Baja and California will become first a very long peninsula then later a archipelago west of the continent. Our world is indeed changing all around us. If you really love reading about Geology and Geography then John McPhee's Pulitzer Prize winning 1998 book "Annals of the Former World" may be just what you're looking for. It's actually like reading 5 shorter books on different aspects of geology: regional landscapes, exotic features, exploring the craton and even California*. But no matter what your interest are, if you tackle this monumental work of over 700 pages be prepared for lots of technical terminology in the Earth Sciences and Geography along with some interesting bits of cultural-history, biographies of various geologist and what frontier life was like in the various regions covered. Some readers may not like McPhee's frequent philosophical or biographical passages, that can be quite long and cover a lot of ground, but his inner thoughts just reflect his passion for geology and all the related sciences'. For me this was a long, tough but rewarding read. Some portions of the book flowed along smoothly while others left me feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the author's lengthy and technical writing style, so unless you're up for a very challenging read you might want to look elsewhere. But I, for one, found this to be an enjoyable book that took me to remote location around North America, the Globe, and back into Earth's Deep Time exploring the origins of our landscape, where it came from and where it's going. McPhee's writing is very descriptive, giving you a clear picture of the places he, and his geologist friends, were traveling through. There aren't many illustrations in the Kindle edition; a few photos, some charts and maps, so my iPad got a real workout as I looked up various mountain ranges and other geological regions. But it became clear to me that if I were to take a motor trip through the western United States I would want to have a friendly geologist with me just to help me understand what we were looking at. All features on the Earth have a long history and it helps to have some idea of their origins and the events that led to their present condition. In this book you'll learn about sea mounts and hot-spots, plate tectonics and continental drift, how mountains grow and erode away, how seas come and go and how long all this has been going on. Be sure to read the author’s Afterword: “A Narrative Table of Contents”, it will explain a lot of questions you may have. In my case I read it after but it would also make a good introduction to the author and book. The science in this book was cutting-edge in 1998 but things are always changing and new theories can spring up almost overnight. Over the past decade new observations have lead to new ideas and new ways of looking at the land and its history. But things in geology change at a very slow pace, so whatever “dated” material there may be in the text shouldn’t make any difference to the general reader. If you're interested in learning the history of land formations, diamonds, glacial till or just plain old rocks, than "Annals of the Former World" is a good bet! I had no technical or downloading problems with this Kindle edition.*As far as I can tell the text was also published as 4 or 5 different books, one for each chapter.Last Ranger

For non geologists, this can be a bit of tough read......which is why I've read it three times. The people and stories that make up each of the sections help make the basic concepts come together to make the big picture that much more comprehensible. Absolutely fascinating read and one of my favorite books of all time. Just wish it came as an audio book.

There are very few books like this, where the author has immersed themselves in the world of geology so much, over a long period of time and is capable of writing in a non-academic way.McPhee traipses across the US with a number of geologists of different specialties, describing the scenery, their line of work and the technical details of how the US came to be. While I personally found the adventures across the US moderately interesting, maybe a touch drawn out, the aspects of the history of geology were fascinating.The earlier chapter discussing the lives of early explorers (Lyell, Hutton etc) and the resulting naming of geological ages (Jurassic based on Jura mountains in France where fossils were found) was the most outstanding chapter for me and highly worth reading. Later chapters discussing Cyprus and copper mining was also excellent.I am thoroughly impressed by the efforts of John McPhee here - he is a very capable writer and not afraid to shy away from the technical details that many modern day writers would have. But the book is comprised really of long separate articles/books, and therefore it doesn't tie together very well as a whole.

For me, five stars is a very rare accolade, as in good film reviewing. This is a 'book of my lifetime' in the field of public science writing. I am amateur-passionate about geoscience but have no interest in America or even its geology. This author and monumental volume were unknown to me until recommended by Prof Iain Stewart in a late-night Inverness bar. McPhee was a New Yorker writer of catholic interests, but must have devoted years not just to writing this tome, but to following Interstate 80 coast to coast, always in the company of a leading geologist in each domain it traverses. Their personal histories are integral, and emblematic of pioneer and immigrant America. His style is pure New Yorker, ramming home his key points by endless repetition and variation, verging on the turgid, but we end up knowing our stuff and all concerned. I don't need to go there now. A Pulitzer Prize is one thing, my award is for seeing me through a year of insomnia nights.

Very thorough overview of the geology of the United States of America. East to understand for non geologists as it is written by a writer with an interest in geology. It focusses on the geology found along interstate route I 80, crossing the United States from New York to California, covering the Appalachians, the great plains, the Laramie mountains and the Rockies, each with a different geologist who accompanies the author on his travels.

A fascinating & insightful book. You don't need to be a scientist to understand it.

Absolutely excellent as both a story and as an introduction to the geology of the earth. Strong in detail, accuracy and clarity.