The dramatic history of planet Earth and the rocky road to understanding the past

• A probing account of the history of the earth and an introduction to the many eccentric characters that have attempted to understand its origins.
• Full of fascinating anecdotes about 19th century explorers and natural philosophers who first carved up Earth's history just as others were carving up the globe.
• Unravels the fascinating history of rock strata and the implications they have had on accepted theories on the Earth's life.
• Considers the future of the earth, and what a repeat of some of the catastrophic events of the earth's past, such as major earthquakes and asteroid collisions, could mean for life today.

Douglas Palmer is an academic, lecturer and popular science writer. He is author or co-author of a wide range of books on prehistoric life and fossils, including the best selling Earth. He teaches for the Cambridge University Natural Science Tripos and the International Summer School. A former earth sciences lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin, he also spent two years as an exhibition coordinator at the National Museum of Wales.