Something New Under the Sun
17 April 2001
Territory Rights — Worldwide.
Description
The definitive environmental history of the twentieth-century world, now updated for the twenty-first.
Humans have long transformed the planet, scratching its surface for stones and ores, planting and harvesting crops, sparking fires for light and heat. But since the dawn of industrialization and especially since 1950, our impact has accelerated sharply. Economic, technological, and demographic changes have driven rapid and ongoing shifts in patterns of pollution, human health, and rising sea levels and temperatures.
In his landmark publication Something New Under the Sun, acclaimed historian J. R. McNeill offered a new way to understand twentieth-century history: through environmental change. Threading lucid scientific explanations with captivating stories, McNeill’s prize-winning history chronicles humanity’s deepening imprint on the planet in an evenhanded account that seeks, above all, to explain. With updated data and stories, and new discussions of climate change and climate politics, Something New Under the Sun remains the definitive account of the most urgent topic of our time.
Reviews
"One of those rare books that’s both sweeping and specific, scholarly and readable." — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker
"More than a mere summing up of human damage to the environment; it looks for links between the history of the planet and that of its peoples.… [A]n important, beautifully written book." — Paul J. Crutzen, Nature
"Magisterial." — Bill McKibben, Boston Globe
"An original work of history, exhaustively researched and carefully written." — Dick Teresi, New York Times Book Review
"A monumental, important, and timely work of interdisciplinary scholarship, written to be accessible to anyone interested in the relationship between our species and the planet that supports us." — Chris Lavers, Guardian
"Refreshingly unpolemical and at times even witty, McNeill's book brims with carefully sifted statistics and brilliant details." — The Washington Post
"This scientifically informed survey makes a useful resource for environmentalists, scholars, globalists, biologists, policy makers and concerned readers." — Publishers Weekly