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What Else to Read
The
following books have been written by scholars for readers who aren’t
necessarily scientists but want to know more.
Broadly speaking
A Short History of
Nearly Everything,
Bill Bryson. With lucid humor, this book covers just about
everything its title says it does. A wonderful read.
Maps of Time: An
Introduction to Big History,
David
Christian. A demanding but readable book by a leading
academic, telling the story of time from the Big Bang to the
twentieth century.
About The Universe
Big Bang: The Most
Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to
Know About It,
Simon
Singh. If anyone can make the Big Bang intelligible to the
layman, it is Singh. The book is an enlightening history of
cosmology and the foibles of cosmologists.
A Brief History of
Time: The Updated and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition,
Stephen
Hawking. This is a mind-stretcher but it’s a classic and
even if you understand only half of it, the excursion is simply
incredible.
Earth
Before Humans
The Ancestor’s Tale:
A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Life,
Richard
Dawkins . A Chaucerian story of evolution, beginning with
man and reversing to the microbe. Readable and relevant,
written by an eminent evolutionist.
Life: A Natural
History of the First Four Billion Years of Life on Earth,
Richard
Fortey. A clear and accessible explanation of the key events
of life on earth, from the first microbes to Cro-Magnon people.
Ice Ages: Solving
the Mystery,
John
Imbrie, Katherine Palmer Imbrie. An explanation of why ice
ages happen and Earth will continue to have them.
The Earth: An
Intimate History,
Richard
Fortey (Harper Collins, 2004). The author is himself a
geologist and his book turns the exploration of plate tectonics
into a page-turner.
After
Humans Evolved
Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud:
Peter Watson. This is a huge book, over 800 pages long with
pages almost half a square foot. But it is a fascinating read,
and rewards the effort it asks. The Author’s Note also includes
a superb reading list of what Watson considers “indispensable.”
A Concise History of
the World,
J M. Roberts (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). A
comprehensive overview of world history from the evolution of
hominids to end of the twentieth century.
A Brief History of
the Human Race,
Michael Cook (New York: Norton, 2003). An easy-to-read series
of essays about human history on each of the world’s continents.
Out of Eden: The
Peopling of the World,
Stephen
Oppenheimer. The evidence supporting the theory that all
non-Africans in the world today are descendants of a pioneering
group that left Africa 80,000 years ago.
The Dawn of Human
Culture,
Richard
G. Klein with Blake Edgar. Klein begins with the bi-peds,
and examines emerging evidence of human consciousness in
Africa
until 50,000 years ago when he believes a genetic change
resulted in the final step in the evolution of modern thought.
Since the Last Ice Age
After the Ice: A
Global Human History 20,000-5000 BC,
Steven Mithen. An examination of cultures at the peak of the
last ice age 20,000 years ago and the unique and dramatic
changes which took place over the next 15,000 years with global
warming. It covers changes in Asia, Europe, the Americas,
Greater Australia, and Africa.
Guns, Germs, and
Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,
Jared Diamond. A gripping analysis of human societies,
examining why some communities gain ascendancy over others. It
destroys comfortable theories that conquering cultures are more
intelligent or morally superior.
Cities,
John
Reader. The astonishing, ingenious and sometimes deplorable
story of cities, from the first in
Mesopotamia to our
own metropolis creations.
From Eve to Dawn,
Marilyn French. A three-volume work examining the role of
women in cultures around the world from prehistory to now. It’s
a sobering historical analysis, written by a refreshingly
optimistic and extraordinarily well-informed, author.
Recent
History of Politics, Religion, and Science
Science: A History
1543-2001,
John Gribbin. A detailed chronicle of major scientific
achievements from the Renaissance to today’s exploration of
space.
The Reformation: A
History,
Diarmaid MacCulloch. A definitive study of the tortured,
complex, and evolving relationships and struggles between
religion, politics, and science from 1490 to the time of modern
democracies.
The Modern Mind: An
Intellectual History of the Twentieth Century,
Peter
Watson. This is another 800+ page book chronicling the
immense power of ideas that shaped our modern world. Reading
every word requires committed interest but it is equally
valuable as a reference book.
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