The book that convinced me to major in geology. Thanks, McPhee!

Probably one of the best books I have ever read. Be prepared for some geologic rigamarole and a sense of patience and the timeline of ages will unfold. Its a compilation of all of McPhee's writings about American continental Geology. I know, sounds dull, but he uses the lives and characters of the Geologists whose work he is describing along with the massive narrative arc of plate tectonics and the history of the science itself. The story of America's westward expansion along with the Romantic era of northeastern America all seem to blend into a text that can miraculously also explain geomorphology and other remarkably dry topics. Gives the vast expanses of time a tiny human scale which we can then wonder at how our ancestors saw these places as well as the painstaking detective work that was critical to our understanding of how they formed, where these places came from and how in something as seemingly stolid as the ground beneath our feet is a plastic and still changing skin manipulated by forces beyond human comprehension. Utterly beautiful work–I know of nothing else like it.

Recommended by a friend. At times I found it hard to stay focused because of the back and forth jumps in space (east - west) and in time (human history - geologic history), but despite that it gave me a great appreciation of geology, Earth, mountains, etc. Whether I look at a rock, a cliff or a terrain map, it will not be the same.

An accomplishment of a scale commensurate with that of geological time, this popular science opus takes the reader across the entire breadth of North America. From the San Andreas Fault to the ancient rift valleys of New Jersey, over basin and range, synclines and sediments, and across the remnants of continental ice sheets and Rocky Mountain orogenies, McPhee weaves together the geologic history of the United States. Composed of five books, each tackling a discrete piece of time and space, this anthology crisscrosses the continent and in the process elucidates not just the distant past, but also the rich characters who are now piecing together its story. Impeccably researched, written in a style that is precise without being overly technical, and with just the right ratio of humor to gravitas, McPhee’s prose shines. This is one heck of a book.


Edit: I reread this book, this time in geographic order from west to east, before and during my trip from California back to Iowa. I liked it just as much, maybe even more.

This is one of the best layman's books on geology I've read. John McPhee makes something that could be incredibly dry vivid and entertaining. He also grapples with the controversy surrounding the acceptance of plate tectonics. I highly recommend it.

“Precambrian landscapes had a barrenness beset by weather without vegetal control. The rock summits of high mountains would have looked like the summits of present time, the bare slopes piled in fans of deep scree, like the ranges of Antarctica. Texture rested in topography, color in rock, braided rivers running over the rock. The cycle through which rock is torn apart, ground up, set down, stratified, and made into fresh new rock was unimpeded by so much as a root or a stem, and therefore cycled more rapidly. Only gravity—within its angle of repose—held boulders and gravels to inclined ground. Silts and sands washed down quickly to lakes and seas. Unadorned, unembellished, severely simple, a picture of the Precambrian would present to us the incongruity of desert landscape invaded by white rivers drenched in rain.”

Notes: The fifth book in this series, Crossing the Craton (covering the midwest and the first few billion years of the earth’s history), is only included in the omnibus volume, so I’m marking it as read to represent the fifth book, and my finishing the series. It’s a magnificent piece of work start to finish. Wisdom, wit, humility, generosity of spirit, staggering perspective, the most esoteric of science translated into glittering prose. I’m a better person, intellectually and spiritually, for having read these books.

That this book lacks a glossary is a high compliment from the author to his readers. As a science fiction enthusiast I'm used to reading past words I don't know, assuming they are neologisms coined to facilitate world-building. Did this with N.K. Jemison's "orogenes", only to find out from McPhee that orogeny is a geologist's term for mountain formation. McPhee knows all the words. All the words. I wish I had made a list and looked them all up, but then it would have taken twice as long to finish this.

I'm not really all that interested in geology. I read all 704 pages of this and would have kept going if there had been more, and I wished there had been more. McPhee is a terrific writer, and is just as interested in the geologists as the geology. I loved the part about David Love's mother, the quick-witted Easterner transplanted to a ranch in the middle of nowhere, watching for a puff of dust that might mean The Sundance Kid has come to visit, keeping a journal that now I will have to search out and read. The section about California earthquakes was also fascinating.

Coincidentally one of the columnists I follow recently wrote about McPhee. He quoted Tina Brown, the "new" editor of the New Yorker, announcing a change of direction for the magazine by eschewing the “'50,000 word piece on Zinc,' which is pretty much the definition of a McPhee essay." But McPhee has many interests, and makes them all interesting. I think next I will pick up Coming into the Country, about the folks that live in the Alaska wilderness. I also have Encounters with the Archdruid on my list, about the Executive Director of the Sierra Club.

The finest contemporary geology book of all time. And, you don't have to give a damn about geology. All you ever have to wonder is where we fit in the long puzzle of earth.
I have read this book a dozen times. I re-read it once a year. I never tire of it, and learn something new each time. Annals of the Former World. John McPhee is astounding.

To fully appreciate this book I think some firsthand knowledge of the American landscape is necessary. I possess only the slightest seen-with-my-own-eyes-familiarity on the subject and although I have read a lot about it that's not the same thing. I therefore found the book hard to follow at some times. Still for Americans who know their country well this should be one of the best and more accessable books on North American geology I reckon. A little outdated perhaps.

McPhee Travels Interstate 80 from the east to the west coast accompanied by a succession of experts in the geology of the regions along the way. He writes in a chatty and engaging style for a book about geology. It reads like a travelogue of an intelligent fellow and good writer curious to find out what he can about the landmass of the United States without too much technicality.

The author leavens the science with just the right amount of associated information: backgrounds and anecdotes about the various geologists (all are interesting), histories of geological discoveries, and human history as related to local geological features.

Jargon is avoided. The author names dozens of minerals (out of about 4,000 yet discovered on earth) he comes across but details only the few most important. He takes you on many side trips off the interstate and to other places in the world where the formations and processes there shed light on what we find here.

The book seems organized as well as possible for portraying such a messy science: the earth's crust has been churned for four billion years, and in different ways, times and depths for each region. What amazes is that so much has been discovered and understood.

This is not a book for anyone without some interest in geology. Conversely, I believe most geologists would read it with interest and learn something.

The few simple maps and diagrams are useful, and more would have been welcome. Scales of mileage would have been helpful.

It took a while to read this, yet I was sorry that it had to end.

As a geology major, a former gold miner, and finally as a hydrogeologist, the earth and its water have always fascinated me. Reading John McPhee is always a delight because he takes what remains mostly a poorly done body of work in mostly scientific terms and turns an explanation of how the earth came to be into a readable and engaging topic. Something just about anyone can enjoy provided they have the curiosity and interest in wondering how so much stunning geography came to be where it is and what it is.

Well done John McPhee!

Great Read!

Tough book to review. I like McPhee and LOVED "Coming into the Country". I wanted to love this too, but this book is just Oh so dense. I have an interest in geography and geology, but this book digs deeeeep into it, and often left me less than clear about exactly what was going on. Tons of material here and for the studying or aspiring gelogist this must be a treasure, but for me I found it not always a real enjoyable read - at times a real slog. Still - lots of fascinating stuff also and so although in its own way it is brilliant, I rate sheerly for the enjoyment factor and so 3 stars it is.