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The Earth Transformed

An Untold History

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The Earth Transformed

By: Peter Frankopan
Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
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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
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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.
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'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©2023 Peter Frankopan (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Environment Nature & Ecology Outdoors & Nature Science World Thought-Provoking Imperialism Military Middle Ages Africa Ancient History Middle East Latin American
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Critic reviews

Frankopan shows you how everything fits together . . . vast, learned and timely . . . The Earth Transformed is Sapiens for grown-ups . . . it holds lessons for a world grappling with rapid climate change caused by human industry (Dan Jones)
Frankopan has brought all this scholarly work together into a massive book that is comprehensive, well-informed and fascinating. It has the intellectual weight and dramatic force of a tsunami . . . This is an endlessly fascinating book, an easy read on an important issue (Gerard DeGroot)
Frankopan demonstrates an impressive mastery of anthropological, historical, and meteorological literature, and his scrupulously evenhanded analysis carefully notes uncertainties in scientific and historical evidence. Elegant and cogently argued, this illuminates an age-old and urgently important dynamic
[Frankopan] succeeds in mastering a seemingly impossible challenge, distilling an immense mass of historical sources, scientific data and modern scholarship that span thousands of years and the entire globe into an epic and spellbinding story. Humanity has transformed the Earth: Frankopan transforms our understanding of history
This is epic, gripping, original history that leaps off the page. I wanted to buy everyone I know a copy (Sathnam Sanghera)
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)
Vast, learned and timely work
A dazzling compendium of global research . . . The value of this book is as an act of deep understanding, recognising not only scientifically but culturally and philosophically that we are epiphenomena – not dominators of the Earth but products of it (Adam Nicolson)
The Earth Transformed is an epic masterpiece. There are many 'big ideas' books out there, but often are beset by wafer-thin scholarship, and few stand up to scrutiny. This absolutely does. It's a book for the ages, and I cannot recommend it enough (Adam Rutherford)
[Frankopan] has attempted successfully, and deftly, what few others have and provided an overarching perspective of the way climatic events and trends, geography and human opportunism have intertwined and defined Homo sapiens’ relationship with the planet
The Earth Transformed makes a major contribution to raising awareness and concern, and hopefully will reach those decision makers, in the political and commercial spheres, who might have the power and means to do something about it. In many ways, this fascinating and thoughtful book’s lack of an overt political message—and its clear focus on the lessons we can learn from past civilisations and their response to climate change—make it all the more powerful a weapon, for which Prof Frankopan deserves credit and thanks
All stars
Most relevant
…if you want a soothing story. The author is not the best narrator (often the case with authors) and I found it much easier to listen to at 0.8 speed to begin with then 0.9 as I got further in to it. For anyone who is a bit older and who has read a fair bit there is a lot of stuff you’ll already know about, but there is enough novelty to keep it interesting and the most fascinating aspect for me is how he ties global events and climate together. If you are interested in history and climate this is worth a listen (although probably a better one to read if you are able to do so)

Not the easiest listen

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A fantastic listen a bit confusing but that was probably me atthe start An excellent history of the world with a very worrying end due to climate change. Recommend to anyone.

Excellent

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I have read many books describing the history of man and the planet, but this has extraordinary detail from contemporary research on the major influences from meteors to volcanos to solar flares and of course anthropogenic activity…
The reading style is not polished but that did not affect me in the same way as other commentators.

Epic story with an ecological perspective

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It was interesting to hear the author read it as I felt that I could hear his emotion pick up as he covered topics that really mattered to him. Although , as others have said, it might be a challenging listen for some. However, there is very little entertainment in the subject matter and the detail he covers details finely the absolute crisis we now face. I did not see optimism here, only hefty doses of reality. For a good book, I will frequently listen several times and then buy a paper version to annotate and scribble over. This is a good book, but beware as it catalogues how it ends (probably).

A serious treatment of the subject

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The scope of the book is so huge and really makes one think about the whole planet, its history and its likely future into perspective.

This book explains climate change encompassing all the contributory elements. Superb!

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