Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Categories
Politics & government

A MOST IMPROBABLE JOURNEY

Walter Alvarez

A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves

Walter Alvarez’s expansion of our view of human history, A Most Improbable Journey, reveals the cosmic, geologic, and evolutionary forces that have shaped us.

Big History, the field that studies the entire known past of our universe to give context to human existence, has so far been the domain of historians. In A Most Improbable Journey, geologist Walter Alvarez—best known for his “Impact Theory” explaining dinosaur extinction—makes a compelling case for a new, science-first approach to Big History. He brings a scientist’s view to the human story, from the creation of our universe and our planet, the rise of life, the movement of our continents and its effect on human migration, to humanity’s ascendance due to our mastery of Earth’s natural resources. Alvarez’s illuminating observations and stories will give readers a new appreciation of the events, from the Big Bang to the Bronze Age and beyond, that have led to the human situation. Through entertaining, bite-sized chapters, A Most Improbable Journey will send readers out in a thousand different directions to learn more. Walter Alvarez is a professor of geology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of, among other titles, the best-selling T. Rex and the Crater of Doom. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and a past recipient of the Penrose Medal, the highest award given by the Geological Society of America.

Available products
Book Published 2016-11-01 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

A wonderful account of Big History by a geologist. And not just any geologist, but the geologist who showed that the dinosaurs were done in by an unlucky asteroid strike! Alvarez writes with precision and great charm. And he reminds us how absurdly improbable is the role we play in this colossal story, and how many things had to go right for you and me to exist.

Imagine a campfire chat with your favorite teacher sharing the biggest story you ever heard. A Most Improbable Journey is a thrilling synthesis from a brilliant scientist who discovered one of the most important chapters in our history. An instant classic.

For the past three decades, Walter Alvarez has been at the center of a revolution in how scientists think about the history of life and the Earth. In A Most Improbable Journey he gives us the biggest history of all, going from the Big Bang to our own place on the planet. Lively and profound and flavored with his infectious enthusiasm, Alvarez shows how each of us has won a truly massive lottery just to be a sentient being on this planet.

Chinese (simpl.): CITIC ; Portuguese (Port): ICETA ; Spanish: Editorial Critica