Time Before History: 5 Million Years of Human Impact

by Colin Tudge

Book Overview

From Simon & Schuster, The Time Before History is Colin Trudge's exploration of 5 million years of human impact. The book is an original contribution to the intertwined narratives of humanity and its... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684807262
• ISBN13: 9780684807263
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 366 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

30,000+ Years of Momentum

This book covers the history of mammals since the fall of the dinosaurs, but focuses mostly on humans and our impact on the world - especially for the last 30,000 to 60,000 years. Starting with a short overview history of Earth and the movements of the continents, Mr. Tudge works methodically to his ultimate goal for this great book... What has been our impact on this planet, how much momentum have we gathered and how far will we go before we reign ourselves back into the natural world. Did humans cause the Pleistocine Overkill? Were our ancestors 30,000 years ago merely the most voracious hunters, or were we proto game managers? Are the large scale extinctions occurring in our own time our fault? Mr. Tudge uses solid science, archeology, paleontology, etc. to create a framework of investigation and then isn't affraid to interject some of his own conclusions and provocative thoughts along the way. This book makes a create compliment to Jarred Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel giving us a very deep picture of who we are and where we are going. >>>>>>><<<<<<< <br /> <br />A Guide to my Book Rating System: <br /> <br />1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper. <br />2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead. <br />3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted. <br />4 stars = Good book, but not life altering. <br />5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.

More than earth science, it is literary science

What I enjoyed most about this enormously informative and eye-opening book, was the author's accessible, absorbing, and almost poetic style of writing; it transformed what potentially would be a terribly dry, recondite subject into a revelatory experience. I recommend it for anyone who suffered through Earth Science and Geology textbooks in high school and college.

outstanding

I just taught this book in a Philosophy and the Environment course, and I would jope that my students enjoyed it as much as I did.An excellent overview of all aspects of the earth sciences (geological disasters, ice ages, asteroid collisions, atmospheric chemistry, plant and animal life). The concept of the "ecomorph" was a fascinating one that I had never heard of before but will not soon forget following Tudge's lucid presentation. He also makes some eye-opening remarks about the impact of agriculture and the human species in general on many now-extinct or soon-to-be-extinct animal species. I actually found the final chapter slightly anticlimactic: not bad, but not nearly as riveting as some of the earlier ones.Even so, this book has turned me into a nature enthusiast for the first time since early childhood, and will surely be only of the first of hundreds of books I will read on the topics he discusses. In that sense, Tudge has had a huge impact on my life, and if you read this book attentively it is likely that he can do the same for you.

Recommended for understanding of humanity's impact on nature

This book is engagingly written and enlightening in its content. Its object, to expand our perspective on the history and the impact on the planet of our genus Homo from its beginning about 5 million years ago, could hardly be more timely. Tudge integrates knowledge from the disciplines of geology, anthropology, archaeology, climatology, and even game theory to provide a framework for understanding. I like his clear explication and illustration of evolutionary principles and mechanisms, in particular his emphasis on the unifying concept of the ecomorph: the outcome of the process by which evolution fits organisms to ecological niches. I like his courage as a non-expert to suggest that the idea of progress may have some usefulness in evolutionary thought. Similarly, Tudge reminds us that whereas Lamarck's fourth law on the inheritance of acquired characteristics should be rightly rejected, his second law, that the production of new organs results from continued environmental pressure in a particular direction, can contribute much to understanding of evolutionary history.In sum, I recommend this book because it accomplishes what it sets out to do and makes a start on an answer to the ant in the cautionary tale called "Ant Research" to be found in the book "The Magic Monastery" by Sufi savant Idries Shah: It took a certain scholar a lifetime of experiment before he could communicate with an ant. The one he eventually found was a very wise and very ancient insect; but at the risk of causing it pain, the scholar said: 'Our species is immeasurably superior to yours. We study you, and yet you cannot even begin to observe us.' The ant said: 'If you, poor man, only knew about yesterday, you would understand today - and also be prepared for tomorrow.' The scholar confessed himself confused by such statements, so the ant continued: 'Millions of years ago, we ants worked out what was going to happen on this earth. We knew that your species would come and ruin almost everything. So we did the only thing open to intelligent beings with complete information. We destroyed the data and forbade the breeding of ants who would understand, organizing ourselves in special colonies. Now and again we have a throwback - an ant who can see our miserable and irreversible fate. But untold myriads of heedless ants are happy; and will be so, until our time comes. That is the solution for ants. You humans, on the other hand, you have not even reached the stage when you know what may happen to you; and whether or not there is anything you can do about it.'

Book will change your perspective

Exciting, fabulous, fascinating subject that changed my perspective about everyday people, persons and things. How many "history" books can you say that about? This book presents the history of our species in an easily understandable story that is stranger than science fiction; two enthusiastic thumbs up