Annals of the Former World Series by John McPhee

4.19 · 72 ratings
  • Basin and Range (Annals of the Former World #1)
    #1

    Basin and Range (Annals of the Former World #1)

    John McPhee

    Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1981

    The first of John McPhee’s works in his series on geology and geologists, Basin and Range is a book of journeys through ancient terrains, always in juxtaposition with travels in the modern world—a history of vanished landscapes, enhanced by the histories of people who bring them to light... more

  • In Suspect Terrain (Annals of the Former World #2)
    #2

    In Suspect Terrain (Annals of the Former World #2)

    John McPhee

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings · published 1983

    From the outwash plains of Brooklyn to Indiana's drifted diamonds and gold In Suspect Terrain is a narrative of the earth, told in four sections of equal length, each in a different way reflecting the three others—a biography; a set piece about a fragment of Appalachian landscape in illuminating counterpoint to the human history there; a modern collision of ideas about the origins of the mountain range; and, in contrast, a century-old collision of ideas about the existence of the Ice Age... more

  • Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World #3)
    #3

    Rising from the Plains (Annals of the Former World #3)

    John McPhee

    Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings · published 1986

    This is about high-country geology and a Rocky Mountain regional geologist. I raise that semaphore here at the start so no one will feel misled by an opening passage in which a slim young woman who is not in any sense a geologist steps down from a train in Rawlins, Wyoming, in order to go north by stagecoach into country that was still very much the Old West. So begins John McPhee's Rising from the Plains. If you like to read about geology, you will find good reading here... more

  • Assembling California (Annals of the Former World #4)
    #4

    Assembling California (Annals of the Former World #4)

    John McPhee

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings · published 1992

    At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis... more

  • Annals of the Former World (Annals of the Former World #5)
    #5

    Annals of the Former World (Annals of the Former World #5)

    John McPhee

    Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings · published 1998

    The Pulitzer Prize-winning view of the continent, across the fortieth parallel and down through 4.6 billion yearsTwenty years ago, when John McPhee began his journeys back and forth across the United States, he planned to describe a cross section of North America at about the fortieth parallel and, in the process, come to an understanding not only of the science but of the style of the geologists he traveled with... more

Find similar series to Annals of the Former World  ❯