The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples

by Tim Flannery

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).

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Nature, Natural History, Environment, Ecology

434 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Tim Flannery is one of Australia's leading thinkers and writers.

An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, he has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many books. His books include the landmark works The Future Eaters and The Weather Makers, which has been translated into more than 20 languages and in 2006 won the NSW Premiers Literary Prizes for Best Critical Writing and Book of the Year.

He received a Centenary of Federation Medal for his services to Australian science and in 2002 delivered the Australia Day address. In 2005 he was named Australian Humanist of the Year, and in 2007 honoured as Australian of the Year.

He spent a year teaching at Harvard, and is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society's representative in Australasia. He serves on the board of WWF International (London and Gland) and on the sustainability advisory councils of Siemens (Munich) and Tata Power (Mumbai).

In 2007 he co-founded and was appointed Chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a coalition of community, business, and political leaders who came together to confront climate change.

Tim Flannery is currently Professor of Science at Maquarie University, Sydney.

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flannery has become like a Carl Sagan for the world of environmental science. In this book he takes in the whole cosmos of the North American ecosystem, from dinosaur days, to the Native patterns of resource management, to the great Western ecocide frontier, until our present hour of furiously evolving co-dependence. While detailing the self-destructive exterminations of targeted species, with their blow-back to the whole chain of life, he notes a great change of heart that's taking hold in the popular mind. For example, by the early 20th century, the New York Zoological Society’s president, Henry Fairfield Osborn, could receive a respectful hearing for his seemingly anti-patriotic words: “Nowhere is Nature being destroyed so rapidly as in the United States … an earthly paradise is being turned into an earthly Hades; and it is not savages nor primitive men who are doing this, but men and women who boast of their civilization.”

[Hundeschlitten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am conflicted about this book: the first 2/3, when Flannery discusses the ecological history of North America up until 1492, gets 5 stars in my book, while all the politically charged clap-trap in the final third would get 2 stars (and even there I am probably being generous).

Flannery introduced a couple of interesting notions that I'd never really thought about:North America's inverted wedge exaggerates global temperature shifts, impacting the ecological history of this otherwise fertile continent for at least the last 65 million years; and the driving force behind human exploration for at least 13,000 years has been to sate our virtually unlimited lust as a carnivorous primate to kill other creatures. Flannery got me to think a bit more deeply about the middle American landscape, and that has made me love it all the more deeply.

It is when Flannery starts talking about human societies that he loses me. Besides his selective use of facts to push all the obvious buttons about the evils of American capitalism that the well-kept show ponies in academia (like himself) love to push, Flannery's biological determinism may be trendy, but it is intellectually weak. Flannery's own oratory refutes his larger point in a single sentence: the most powerful force in literate societies is language, because "words-especially written words-bind us in a way nothing else can." Thus our ideas can override our biology. Hey dude, you just refuted your own argument. Game, set, match. Next subject.

But I still give this 4 stars, because the first part of the book actually got me to look at the world in a new way. Which is no small thing.

[Andrew]

I always like it when a text pertaining to history goes way, way beyond expectations in its scope – I loved ESPN's OJ Simpson: Made in America largely because the Big Thing doesn't happen until past the halfway point in the series. To understand the Simpson trial as a whole, you first have to know a lot about OJ Simpson himself, the Buffalo Bills, and the role of the black athlete in an era before the Georgetown Hoyas trimmed their jerseys with kente cloth. Likewise, to understand human history in North America, you have to understand quite a lot about the continent's geological, climatological, botanical, and zoological past.

Now, I should point out that most of the stuff about post-1492 America was hardly new or surprising, as both an American and an environmentalist (whatever that means), but the way in which Flannery illustrates the geographic factors that shape the continent and its peoples are fascinating – even if I knew a fair bit already, he's a master storyteller.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was tough reading the first half of the book, which was primarily a treatise on the various dinosaurs and megafauna that roamed over the N.A. land way back in time. The the humans show up, about 14,000 years ago. I really enjoyed reading about the ice age and imagined what it must have been like to have to deal with mastadons and mammoths, and gigantic lions. Things sort of deteriorate, as the Northeast is deforested, and then our forefathers turned to decimating the buffalo and the passenger pidgeons. The ecology of industrialization and the politics of farming made for more interesting lessons. All well written and engaging, and made me hungry to explore more about the history of the western US around California.

[John Valett · Rating 5 out of 5]

To fully understand the ecological crisis we are experiencing today, it is utterly important to understand what our world looked like in its “unspoiled” existence. Only then will we have a baseline of how much we have lost and what needs to be done to stop our steep descent. This book captures all of it, since the time of the dinosaurs and is critical to understanding the challenges we are up against today.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book fascinating. It was easy to read and filled with information about how the flora and fauna and landscape of North America evolved. I never knew there used to be tigers in America until I read this book!

[Rob Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extended review of this quality book on the history of the North American continent.

Strolling through the museum, you arrive at the newest exhibit, “America: 50 Million Years Ago.” Visitors finds themselves looking at unfamiliar creatures, things they would expect to find in a science-fiction or horror movie. The most feared carnivore is a flightless bird almost six feet tall with an ax-like beak that can swallow most American mammals whole. There are soft-shelled turtles with snouts like a pig, horses the size of a fox, and a shrew grown to the size of a cow. The early relatives of camels are hard to pick out, because they are the size of hare. At times, it looks as though the designers of this exhibit took known animals and rearranged their features like a kind of twisted Mr. Potato Head game.

Descriptions of these unusual creatures are only one of the attractions of Tim Flannery’s book, The Eternal Frontier. An Australian, Flannery (not to be confused with the former San Diego Padres utility infielder) typically writes about ecology in his native land, but in The Eternal Frontier he ventures across the Pacific to look at the long-term history of the North American continent. In the process, he has written an engaging book full of insights into North America’s continental history that go beyond descriptions of long-extinct flora and fauna to discuss climate, ecology, population migrations, and eventually, humans.

Flannery begins with a discussion of a North America divided into two parts, with a shallow intervening sea known as the Bearpaw. This description of ancient North America, 75 million years ago (MYA), quickly leads into the most devastating known event in world history, the collision of an asteroid with the earth about 65 MYA. With minor exceptions, this meteorite impact (in the present-day Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico) simultaneously ended the age of the dinosaurs in the northern hemisphere (because of the trajectory of the meteorite, the southern hemisphere largely escaped significant damage) and wiped away virtually all life from the North America landscape. Before shunting the dinosaurs aside, however, Flannery does note that their disappearance cleared the way for a heretofore little-noted group of creatures, the mammals. As long as dinosaurs ruled the earth, mammals were unable to evolve into anything larger than a house cat, despite about 100 million years of trying, but that was about to change.

From this point, Flannery follows several main themes throughout The Eternal Frontier. One is the use of geologic evidence, or its lack, to infer important conclusions about the history of North America. For example, before the meteor impact, physical connections existed between all the continents, demonstrated by the fact that they shared many species of dinosaur and flowering plants. Another of the themes Flannery brings forward is how and why some species are successful when entering new habitats because many species did from time to time when changing climate created new land connections between continents. Again drawing evidence from the fossil record, he shows that when North America and Europe connected via Greenland about 46 MYA, the migration was definitely from North America to Europe. The reason? Species from the larger continent usually prevail in such situations because continents with a greater number of species have greater competition between species, and thus more pressure to evolve adaptations that aid in species survival. Another result is that when a bridge opened between Asia and North America about 6 MYA, Asian species crossed and many established themselves in their new home, meaning that roughly half of North American species were not American in origin, but migrants from Asia. Another of the factors contributing to successful species migrations is that those who have adapted to marginal or difficult environments stand the best chance of success.

The final overarching theme of The Eternal Frontier is Flannery’s conception of the continent as a “climatic trumpet.” He demonstrates that due to the shape of North America, wide toward the North Pole and narrow at its southern terminus, with the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains creating a corridor through which most weather systems pass, it creates an amplifying effect continentally on global climate changes. This means that when an event effecting world climate takes place, such as the cooling episode brought on by Australia separating from Antarctica 33 MYA, North America magnifies the result, producing new conditions that result in extinction for some species and new opportunities for others. In general, the big-picture significance is that when the climate warms, life flourishes in North America, including pronounced species diversification; when things cool, the reverse occurs, and many species die out.

Eventually, Flannery discusses the impact of humans on North American history. He sounds off on the cause of the Clovis extinctions, seeing strong evidence in support of humans being the primary cause. Flannery recognizes that this event, regardless of cause, is rather unique in North American history, but leaves no doubt about his feelings on the matter, coming up with the self-titled “black hole theory”: “If our current chronology is accurate and humans were indeed the cause of the extinctions of America’s megafauna, it had taken just 300 years to dispatch into oblivion, through the black hole that lay between Clovis nose and Clovis chin, a continent full of giants.” (204) Also, and perhaps not surprisingly for a book titled The Eternal Frontier, Flannery proves an enthusiastic supporter of Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Hypothesis of American history. Flannery also sees the frontier attitude as important in another way. Recognizing the costs of the reckless use of natural resources in support of the capitalist economic system pursued throughout the American frontier, he points out that this attitude towards the frontier is alive and well today, with an “audacity and imbecility of which leaves one gasping for breath.” (302) The result is that “in the process, men blind to nature would blast marvels from the face of the Earth, destroying forever the best of America’s wildlife.” (312)

There are many strengths to The Eternal Frontier. For one, Flannery’s style is easy to read, yet he still manages to explain evolutionary concepts clearly for the non-specialist. His description of how ecology, climate, and life interact is music to the ears of readers who appreciate a long-term view of history and ecology. The descriptions of the physical traits of long-extinct species, and how those traits connect with evolution and the surrounding environment, is both interesting and informative, if sometimes a bit short on detail due to the fragmentary evidence left by the fossil record. Some of the stories are entertaining, such as when 1870s archaeologists traveled up the Platte River under military escort to protect them from Sioux warriors, their party complete with Pawnee scouts and, for a time, Buffalo Bill Cody himself. Others are instructive, such as when Flannery recalls a dramatic warming episode of 50 MYA where, due to large concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, oceanic circulation changed and global temperatures rose substantially. Our current industrial society may want to take note.

Despite the many strengths of this work, it could have been better on a few fronts. The most glaring issue is the endorsement of Turner’s hypothesis despite the large body of evidence pointing toward other explanations of American development. In addition, the description of the impacts of invasive species transported by humans lacked depth considering its current ecological importance in all regions of the continent. A description of the impact of zebra mussels or the destruction of San Francisco Bay’s native ecology would have been appropriate as a representative example. The final evaluation is that the first three quarters of the book are a delight to read, but in the final section discussing American history the reader should proceed with caution.

[Trey · Rating 5 out of 5]

North America has a reputation as land of opportunity, danger, and fortune. As Tim Flannery exposes, this reputation is well-earned since time immemorial. As the reader traverses the awesome history of this vast, complicated, and unique continent from the great asteroid impact that caused the largest extinction event in the continent's history to the present millennium, they are exposed to long-extinct worlds populated with great herbivores, cunning and resourceful predators, and the ever-changing flora and fauna that enters and leaves the continent from various, changing land-bridges tied to other places. The reader learns how easily fluctuations in climate can alter the landscape on this especially vulnerable continent, what North America looked like before the arrival of the first humans, and the impact that these humans had on their new environment. Finally, reaching the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the waves of Europeans that followed him, Flannery examines the ever-growing impact that migrating human beings had (and continue to have) on this expansive and, at one time, rich landmass.

The writing is superbly done, and the story is expertly organized. The interspersed anecdotes, historical accounts, and imaginative renderings of a faraway North America keep the book engaging, and the appeals at the conclusion of the book to recreate a splendorous North American continent and society adapted to be sustainable are inspiring to a young North American inhabitant such as myself.

I will concede, this book is not an especially easy read. Although its language is simple enough for the layman, its biological concepts, knowledge, and scope are trying to the non-scientist. The first large chunk of the book is chock-full of scientific names for long-extinct creatures and extensive details of the strategies and attributes of various plants and animals, but if one is able to allow some things to wash over them, and attempt to envisage a larger picture of a changing place over 60+ million years, one will be rewarded with a rich, insightful, and educational ecological history of this exceptional continent.

[Jarvo · Rating 4 out of 5]

History on a big scale, in which chapters which only deal with a few hundred years feel like an abrupt change of pace. A book which taught me a lot, and reminded me of a few other significant things. The majority of the book deals with material of which I previously new very little. It begins with the extinction of the dinosaurs, prompted by a massive meteorite striking the earth somewhere in the vicinity of what is now South East Mexico, and ends with the current environmental crisis. A lot of the intervening period deals with accounts of mammals, most of which are now extinct and many of which appear to be truly terrifying. Antarctica apart, the Americas were the last continents to be inhabited by humans. By the time we arrived North America appeared to be home to one of the world's largest and most diverse collection of mega fauna (otherwise known as big animals), many of which quickly (by the standards of ecological history) became extinct as a result of human predation. The last few hundred years have seen many of the remaining - or replacement - big animals go the same way, or become close to the edge, with the author attributing the sense of 'ecological release' which migrants often experience to the reckless behaviour behind this.
An impressive book, even if the earlier sections are more convincing than the modern stuff. (There was one great passage towards the end though. I've often agreed that the UK - especially Scotland - should look to reintroduce wolves as a way of curbing excess deer. Yellowstone Park has a similar problem, but the author argues that the solution would be the release of lions, last seen in the American wild more than 10,000 years ago. That is proper hardcore. In my opinion).

[Paul Norwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting overview of the continent. I found that the information was most interesting in the beginning, and became less and less compelling towards the end as the author's opinions became more and more entangled with the facts. This, of course, is unavoidable. Another unavoidable thing is that the book is starting to show its age, and this trend will only continue. I read this book in anticipation of reading "Europe" by the same author, and I am hoping to find some updates in there.

Also, I first decided to read Tim Flannery's books because I read a well-written review by him in the New York Review of Books. This book is not as well-written as the review, but decent for a full-length tome of general nonfiction.

His final ideas on rewilding are not something I espouse to the extend that he does, but I think they were at the forefront of something that is a tiny bit more mainstream now.

Finally, perhaps because he is Australian and writing slightly in the past, the author's way to approach Native Americans is a bit cavalier. Overall it's a book worth reading, but not remarkable.

[Joseph Gendron · Rating 4 out of 5]

A monumental work of North American geography, the author describes million of years of evolution and change of flora, fauna and landscapes with a focus on the last 65 million years. He also describes the migration, evolution and change of the people inhabiting North America, the last of the continents to be inhabited by humans, beginning from around 13,000 years ago. Perspective: 13,000 years is 0.02% of 65 million years and 65 m.y. is 1.5% the age of the earth.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweeping, challenging history of North America from 66 million years ago just before the meteor hit wiping out the dinosaurs and all large plants and going up to the year 2000, with a lot of concern for the future. The author goes into detail about the numbers of animals and plants that came from all directions in the world to North America, then disappeared and often came again. The book needs rereading to absorb all the details. Amazing work 4.6.

[Bruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the book is a solid but dry description of the floral/faunal history of N. America from about 65 mill. yrs. ago to the present. There is a lot of interesting information but the narration is poor; too much of this material reads something like "animal X migrated over pathway y to get to N. America z million years ago." The final 50 pages or so is a typical misplaced screed against the standard foe (hint: males of European ancestry) who have destroyed every aspect of N. America's ecology etc. Words from a single page: "rape", "extirpate", "stupid and unforgivable", "mindless development", "catastrophe", "culprits". I know the perpetrators were/are the devil incarnate, as I've read many times - I don't need to see this stuff any more. (Spraying vitriol is not the way to improve things.)

[Anna Funk · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good lawd this was hard to get through! Like more than a year of slogging, picking up, putting down, reading two pages a night before falling asleep. I think this content would've worked well in a textbook form-- smaller chunks, pictures, figures... but instead it's just text text text. The first 1/2 (or 2/3... or 4/5?) was particularly difficult, with lots of mentions of lots of of alien-sounding prehistoric animals that are nearly impossible to keep straight.

It's saving grace was the last few chapters. Once you hit bison and other familiar, modern species, plus historic humans that allow for more narrative story-telling, things really pick up.

This book is for real nerds only. If you only have a casual interest in the subject, skip to the end.

[David Kessler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed the book very much. The ecology of N. America after the asteroid struck it 65 million yrs ago. What animals survived the blast and which animals emigrated on land bridges? The story of what plants and animals have and had lived in North America over this long expanse of time is based upon solid science: recent geology and 80 yrs of paeleantologists digging and digging in North America.

[David R. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entirely disappointing. Flannery doesn't hide his distaste for Americans, and for good measure, any human occupant of North America. The first few chapters are insightful, beyond that it's mostly op-ed.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

United States History courses tend to make much out of a little; after all, the United States of America is not even yet 250 years old. But North America is far older.

Tim Flannery provides the ultimate in American history in The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples, covering 65 million years from the Chicxulub asteroid impact until the modern day.

As an ecological history, the work focuses on what we have learned about the flora and fauna, especially the fauna, of the North American continent. It is believed said continent has moved a lot, expanded its boundaries, had inland seas come and go, watched a few mountain ranges rise and fall - and of greater consequence, came into contact with Eurasia, broke off contact with Eurasia, and connected with South America.

Thus the narrative describes the ascent of mammals after the asteroid impact and plant development; Eurasian migrants to North America, with a couple of key North Americans immigrating to Europe, including the horse; eventual isolation from Eurasia, and eventual contact with South America, and how many more species traveled north from South America than vice versa, including most of our migratory birds.

The big story more recently involved Ice Ages, the development of the American megafauna, and the eventual death of the megafauna, most likely at the hands of early Indigenous people. The author is very committed to the Clovis people as the first Indigenous Americans; one can only wonder what he would make of the most recent evidence suggesting the presence of people well before 13,000 years ago.

According to the author, North America has never really gotten over the end of its megafauna. Sure, Indigenous people persevere for generations afterward, but such explains why the bison became so important as the last remnant of the megafauna. And then the Europeans arrived with all kinds of new exchanges.

The last two centuries in particular have been nothing but a disaster ecologically for North America, well exemplified by the author in terms of the stories of the passenger pigeon and the bison. Resources which developed over long periods of time have been quickly exploited and extracted.

Those who may find the millions of years a difficult prospect to entertain can do well imagining it all happening over a shorter time, or as a heritage imbued in the rock from its creation. What should not be missed is the story we can read from the ecological heritage of North America. The geography of North America means it experiences climate change more sharply and violently than other parts of the world; we should not be surprised if our climate varies more sharply and violently over the next few generations. North America will remain resilient; its present flora and fauna, however, maybe not so much.

This is an interesting read in order to get a fuller picture of the heritage of North America.

[Michael Heath-Caldwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tim Flannery's book "The Eternal Frontier" published 2001 shows how epochs fly as what was once the last super-power left standing suddenly finds itself with a lot of competition. So how would the book be revised for today, 18 years later?

Flannery concentrates on the American sub-continents over the ages from the asteroid impact onwards, with the land subject to regular climates changes characterised by repeat Ice-Ages. This results in major changes in sea level creating land brideges allowing waves of animal species to spread accross.

The fauna is characterised by Mega-Fauna, including Mammoths, but on the arrival of humans this Mega-fauna becomes extinct.

Humans cause Mega-fauna extinctions such as Moas in NZ due to the Maori eating all the eggs. It was easy to shoo away the Moas from the nests with fire and noise. The same process would have applied to the Mammoth, with the hunters shooing away the adults mammoths and slaughtering the young ones.

Flannery ponders the regularity of Ice-Ages as we watch the ticking time bomb of the Gulf Stream's waning tempurature differential from warm to cold, with the added dynamics of fresh water run-off, Polar heat waves and momentum creating graphs that intersect somewhere.

The warning for us may be the healthy Mammoths, standing upright, in supposedly large numbers, in the middle of their lunch break on the savannah and thensnap frozen and embedded deep in the permafrost.

[Mo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does exactly what it promises: it provides a history of the North American ecological landscape from the time the asteroid hit until present day. This timespan entails around 66 million years and an incredible amount of intriguing events occured within it, such as the effects of the asteroid itself, the rise and extinction of mammoths, the first humans on the continent and the impact of the second settlement wave from Europe.
This book unexpectedly ignited a few somewhat niche interests in me that gave me a long lost sense of wonder, such as the eruption of the Krakatoa, the history of the Aztec empire and the pilgrim settlers.
Another great strength of the book is that it forced me to put historical events into perspective in a way I had never done before, e. g.: When the Romans first encountered the Germanics, what was happening in North America?
The book starts to look a lot like a critique of North American society from around the point the first Europeans set foot on the continent.
Using historical evidence about evolution and the impact of climate, it ends by setting a prediction for the future. As this prediction was set 25 years ago, we can already see some of its accuracy today.
All in all, I would recommend this book to anybody interested in ecological and cultural history, in particular that of the perhaps most particular continent in the world, and who can handle critique about the modern Western way of life.

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty darn sweeping account of North America--and a little of South America--from before birth to today with a bit of speculation about tomorrow. Cool stuff awaits.

He goes into so much detail about so many things that I felt lost at times, and in some chapters he jumped from species to species so rapidly I felt really lost. Not that I expected this from him, but iti would be really interesting to read a book that went into great depth about all that is known of some of the prehistoric mammals--the horses, the sabre-toothed cat, the wooly mammoth, the short-faced bear....

Also in his discussion of plants was just a jumping off place for a hundred explorations of individual plants and whole ecosystems. In fact, that may be what was lacking to make the story complete. To describe an ecosystem in a way you know it and feel it...wow. That would have made this an awfully big book and I would never have tried to read it. So never mind.

It's best as it is. Sweeping, grand, and marvelous. It's a cool place we live in. Hope we can go on living here.

[Cristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times dense, dry, or perplexing this book also summarized a lot of history that is often glossed over for both speed and saving face. I actually liked the early prehistory chapters, but they definitely needed more maps and illustrations that were less well known. I found myself looking up too many things on the side.

Also, its definitely weird reading an Australian account of Native American and US settler history. On the plus side, it means their arguments were apolitical to regular US discourse. But at times it felt like manifest destiny was seen by the author as a great advancement even though he makes it clear it was ultimately the greatest destroyer of the western US ecology. It’s clear the author is not rooting for any person, just the rocks and plants and what’s left of the water, as eventually the climate will win.

[Abe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sweeping account of the continent's history since the KT extinction, or the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. Flannery introduces us to a land of tremendous natural wealth, the product of millions of years of evolution and a frontier promising eternal growth and opportunity. Its history is a story of colonization and immigration, the twin forces which have shaped the ecology of North America as profoundly as evolution, geology, and climate.

I'll probably end up reading this again in a few years, once I brush up on my paleontology and American history. Flannery covers an enormous amount of time (65 ma) in 350 pages and I would spend minutes on a paragraph or even an hour on a chapter, depending on how much I wanted to remember when I was done.

[Peter Goggins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written certainly more for a mass audience than not, this book is an example of those that becomes considerably more interesting the further you read along.

I was particularly enamored by the author’s semi-thesis that North America’s ecological history tied back all the way to the very shape of the continent and it’s poor fortune to have been struck by the dinosaur killing meteorite. The book is filled with broadly articulated theories such as this, skillfully discussed without presenting anything as fact, or even an academic argument - simply thought out loud.

I would criticize the authors seeming obsession with “guns germs and steel”, citing the book at least five times, more so than any other source. Why?

[Nigel Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

An awesome book about the evolution of the continent and especially the fauna.

Imagining the waves of migration as land bridges opened and closed between North and South America and Asia was like imagining science fiction battle scenes. Then the long periods of isolation in which the species evolved in isolation and sometimes successfully returned to their native continent. I should have reviewed this right after I read it but it's been several months....

Unsatisfied by his explanation for the sudden extinction of megafauna, but that's probably my desire to speculate on cosmic catastrophes (see Younger Dryas).

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this book describes the animals in North America during the millions of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It is a panorama of elephants, horses, hippos, enormous ground sloths, lions and unfamiliar reptiles. For me, there was much too much information to consume, and it was a lot of work to get the stunning overall picture.

Unfortunately, the last 100 pages covering the last 500 years veers away from the natural world towards political and social events, much of which is unbalanced and better covered elsewhere. If I were advising a friend, I would recommend the book, but skip the last 100 pages.

[Marta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings about this book. The title states that it's an ecological history of North America but right away the author states that it will focus on the U.S. since there is not enough information and research about Canada and Mexico. Don't include North America in the title if that's the case.

Overall this is a very interesting read. Shines brightest when talking about animals, geology, fossil history, etc. Suffers when discussing humanoid history.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the writing in this book. It started off a bit slow, delving deep into prehistory but it culminated in a well developed and interesting read that is relevant to conservation today. It was based in science but also speculative about possible theories behind ecological patterns. The author didn't indulge in patriotic reverence for any culture and was very honest about historical facts. It flowed well and was enjoyable and informative.

[William Barrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flannery's guide to the ecological history of North America focuses on a timeline keeping with the theory of evolution with regard to species appearing on the continent. There is no defense of the theory and all problems with the theory are totally ignored. The contributions he makes to the topic (ecological history of North America) center on the interaction of animals with humans, the physical environment, and climate. The author does a good job explaining the variety of theories involving human migrations to the continent and what happened to them through different waves of immigrants. When it comes to the climate, he carefully navigates the issues involved with the current trend of climate change and how the change is not new to the continent's history. In fact, Flannery provides a superb explanation for the unique climatological history of North America as compared to the other continents. He fails, however, to adequately discuss the impact of the Little Ice Age on North America. That is a matter he really needs to develop and add to any future revised edition. I enjoy his writing style.

[Laura Madsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, sweeping look at North America from the Chicxulub asteroid to Hell pigs to the Clovis people to the Dust Bowl. Over 65 million years, there has been frequent species immigration and emigration across Beringia, Greenland, and (later) from South America. If you liked SAPIENS by Yuval Noah Harari, you’ll like this. I hope Tim Flannery updates a new edition.

[Rodrigo Burgarelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Narrativa muito bem escrita sobre a história biológica e geográfica da América do Norte, desde a época dos dinossauros até os tempos pré-colombianos. Me ensinou bastante sobre as principais características ecológicas do continente e sobre a evolução das espécies de maneira aplicada. Meu sonho de vida é ler um livro igual sobre a América do Sul.