The Eternal Frontier
An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A comprehensive history of the continent, “full of engaging and attention-catching information about North America’s geology, climate, and paleontology” (The Washington Post Book World).
Here, “the rock star of modern science” tells the unforgettable story of the geological and biological evolution of the North American continent, from the time of the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago to the present day (Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel).
Flannery describes the development of North America’s deciduous forests and other flora, and tracks the migrations of various animals to and from Europe, Asia, and South America, showing how plant and animal species have either adapted or become extinct. The story spans the massive changes wrought by the ice ages and the coming of the Native Americans. It continues right up to the present, covering the deforestation of the Northeast, the decimation of the buffalo, and other consequences of frontier settlement and the industrial development of the United States.
This is science writing at its very best—both an engrossing narrative and a scholarly trove of information that “will forever change your perspective on the North American continent” (The New York Review of Books).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
If Nature itself has a nature, it's the desire for balance. In a fascinating chronicle of our continent's evolution, Flannery shows, however, that this desire must forever be frustrated. Flannery starts his tale with the asteroid collision that destroyed the dinosaurs, ends with the almost equally cataclysmic arrival of humankind and fills the middle with an engaging survey of invaders from other lands, wild speciation and an ever-changing climate, all of which have kept the ecology of North America in a constant state of flux. We see the rise of horses, camels and dogs (cats are Eurasian), the rapid extinction of mammoths, mastodons and other megafauna at the hands of prehistoric man, and the even quicker extinction of the passenger pigeon and other creatures more recently. Flannery also spotlights plenty of scientists at work, most notably one who tries to butcher an elephant as a prehistoric man would have butchered a mastodon, and another who had the intestinal fortitude to check whether meat would keep if a carcass were stored at the bottom of a frigid pond, the earliest of refrigerators. This material might be dense and academic in another's hands, but Flannery displays a light touch, a keen understanding of what will interest general readers and a good sense of structure, which keeps the book moving, manageable and memorable.
