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  • A Brief History of Earth

  • Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters
  • Written by: Andrew H. Knoll
  • Narrated by: Tom Parks
  • Length: 4 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (8 ratings)

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A Brief History of Earth

Written by: Andrew H. Knoll
Narrated by: Tom Parks
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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

What listeners say about A Brief History of Earth

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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent book

I took the subject material in University more than 25 years ago. Narration was excellent and didn't put me to sleep.

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  • Colin Bump
  • 2021-05-21

Very chilling and well thought out

I’ll put it plainly, this book is amazing. Traveling back hundreds of millions of years, Knoll details the epic changes that happened to the world throughout that span of time until life came to Earth. Starting small, he details things such as atoms, protons, neutrons but then combines all of these into bigger systems such as ourselves, humans! This book was a fantastic read and can be done in one sitting! Truly a must have on your bookshelf!

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13 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2021-08-10

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.

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8 people found this helpful

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  • rkeinc
  • 2021-09-06

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.

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7 people found this helpful

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  • Seo-Woo Choi
  • 2022-03-15

Meh.

You get what you expect.
(Unless this is your first book on Earth history of paleontology.)

But you don't get anything else.
Adequate, but if you are a reader of popular science books, this wouldn't thrill you.

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5 people found this helpful

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  • Nathan McArthur
  • 2022-10-15

Don't waste your time.

This gives a very simple outline and ends with that the world is ending. Boring

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  • Wil Dredge
  • 2021-07-18

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.

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Jeffrey D
  • 2023-06-05

Cool, calm, smooth, factual

Simply excellent, albeit short, geological and paleontological history of the earth. Ends where we find ourselves, with an ecological and climate problem. If you are in doubt about global warming, please listen to/read this book.

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1 person found this helpful

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  • JOEL HORNE
  • 2023-01-18

Very interesting and informative

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

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  • wbiro
  • 2023-01-18

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.

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  • Giovanni puccio
  • 2023-02-11

Not for everyone

It feel i should’ve went to college or been educated on the terms and knowledge that he mentions. It zones you out when he speaks in a way that only people who have learned this stuff can understand. But when you can understand him its very intriguing

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