The Earth Transformed: An Untold History

I was brought up to think history was about monarchs, Generals and geniuses. And I always felt this wasn't history. The Earth Transformed tells a meaningful global history - about people, societies and civilisations. As the author says, the environment (and especially climate and weather) isn't just an actor on the stage that most histories ignore - it is the stage, and when the stage collapses (which it often does) the show can't go on.Arguing that climate has repeatedly brought down civilisations has become overly fashionable but this isn't the line this book takes - societies collapse when they fail to respond to climate or prepare for adverse weather, and they are then replaced by more appropriate ones. Time after time, this is what we can learn from history. Time after time, we ignore the lesson.The Earth Transformed has been criticised as lacking a clear and convincing central message. But this is exactly the point. History is messy. Human society is messy. Real life ain't simple. It's so refreshing to read a grown up book that doesn't grasp for populist platitudes.There are flaws in this book. Sometimes, the author's love of history cause him to stray from his central theses. And in the final chapters, he seems unable to get across the magnitude of the impact of our current 'Great Acceleration' and how the risks we are exposed to now dwarf those of former civilisations. I also think he has missed an opportunity to draw out comparisons between our current predicament and those that human societies have faced in the past. So his very last chapter is less history and more environmental polemic (and therefore more derivative than it could be).But it is nonetheless a monumental, sweeping, illuminating, intelligent, challenging, rewarding, masterful and astonishing achievement.

I really liked this book which focuses on the climate and how it has impacted humanity from our origins to the present. The author argues that the climate has effected the rise and fall of civilizations, the outcomes of conflict and how and why we are making climate change worse in the present. Although it can be heavy going at times, I really enjoyed this book and it deserves 5 stars out of 5.

Must read paperback book delivered undamaged and on time.Purchase recommended.

This book is interesting at first and teaches a good amount but goes in Tangents and gets boring as if the writer is trying to fill a page.

Having read Silk Roads I knew I would be in for a similar epic with The Earth Transformed. The author has a gift for telling stories on a global scale and is pushing that to the limit with this book. I was initially trying to keep track of the shifts and switches between civilisations but found this hard to keep track of and this is when I realised because I was thinking on too small a scale. This book comes into its own when you widen your conceptual sense and take a truly global view. Settlements, city states and nations are just parts of the stage on which this book is set. Examples are not there to tell the story of any one state, empire or peoples, but the wider planetary narrative.The book is about how the people cope with the story the planet is telling. Humanities fluctuating fortunes when faced with changing climate and environmental conditions is what emerged as the central thread. The imagery of networks and connectivity appears often in the book, time and again these networks were being stress tested by the demands that were placed on it and those that were not able to respond fell, whilst others survived or flourished.As a history teacher I will now be thinking hard about how to synthesise the messages from this book so that I can put it into my lessons.

Wonderful book to read from a very knowledgeable writer.

Stunning looking book, Christmas present for history loving person.

Monster read, but lacking in actual detail for me. Tends to jump from subject to subject with no in depth discussion. Some chapters deserve a whole book with more discussion rather than a simple statement of the authors viewpoint and a citation to the references. A bit disappointed. Could have been much better.

It is a long bramble of citation notes, very few real dates and very little discussion that is original.

Another very good book by Peter Frankopan. Can not wait to read it.Also, the Amazon driver perfect (unfortunately the amazon driver have to work with maps that are not perfect but also wrong).Amazon es works mostly very well. But this time … why didn't they give me information that the dust jacket is missing, and the book has a crack. At the end I don`t mind. But they should have told me (like they did always before).

Very good but too verbose and not always tightly relevant to its stated purpose. Many rabbit holes could have been left unexplored without weakening arguments or coherence.

This is a fantastic and captivating read with true hallmark of Peter Frankopan which only he can write. A Collector’s Delight and a book to be kept on the shelf, visible and to be read again.

Utterly absorbing. I thought I would feel tragic by the end- but didn’t . I want everyone in the world to read it.