What on Earth Happened?: The Complete Story of the Planet, Life, and People from the Big Bang to the Present Day

by Christopher Lloyd

In What on Earth Happened?, Christopher Lloyd tells our story from the very beginning of time to the present day, taking giant narrative leaps across millennia and continents. Along the way, he explains exactly how Muslim conquest gave Spain its paella, how the Earth's collision with another young planet created the moon, how dragonflies the size of seagulls emerged out of the prehistoric waters, and how the Big Bang can be detected in your television. Accessible and endlessly entertaining, this massive book draws on disciplines as wide-ranging as astrophysics and anthropology and will appeal to experts, amateur enthusiasts and the simply curious alike. Completed by 250 colourful photographs, maps, historic paintings, engravings and specially commissioned illustrations, What on Earth Happened? takes an entertaining and informed sideways look at the last 13.7 billion years in the life of our universe. Do you know What on Earth Happened?

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Reference, Biology, Evolution, Popular Science

416 pages, Hardcover

First published October 14, 2008

About the author

Bestselling author Christopher Lloyd began his career as a journalist with the Sunday Times newspaper. Then, while camping with his family, he had a critical realization: Even with a 1st class degree in history from Cambridge University and experience as a science writer, there was so much about the world he didn't know. So, he set out to write books that zoom out and tell the big stories, opening readers' eyes to how seemingly unrelated events fit together and showing them multiple perspectives on the world, all in highly engaging prose and matched with lively illustration and photography.

Now, with more than 20 books in print, some in over a dozen languages, Christopher divides his time between writing books for adults and children and delivering lectures and workshops to schools, literary festivals, and a wide range of other venues around the world.

Reviews

[Dimitris Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are sometimes when you read books that change your world view, if even slightly (I mean, OK, realistically, what book will change your world view completely?). They make you think, stay with you for some time, making you want to talk with others around you about the fresh things you've just found out but for some reasons nobody seems to care about. What on Earth Happened has been one of those books for me.

It's a beast. It took me slightly less than 3 months to read it all, but at times I remember reading a lot of it every day. WoEH is just incredible in i's variety of subject material. The title truly says it all. Where else are you going to find the stories of giant dragonflies, the tectonic plates, why Europe's only hope out of decadence was to go out exploring and colonising, prehistoric man, dinosaurs, ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, America (etc), the first species of marine wildlife, how ants, bees and termites are in some ways civilizations of their own, etc, etc, in one tightly packed, well-knit, intriguing package such as this?

WoEH, as it does claim to do, looks at the bigger picture. This is quite possibly the biggest picture of anything I've ever imagined, and it's not cheesy at all, contrary to what I suspected at first... If the age of the universe can be shrunk into 24 hours, we humans have existed for the last 20 minutes of that and history is just a mere second thereof. Think about that for a second (pun intended). The tragic effect is missing, of course. Reading about something is much different than reading the thing itself.

You know what? It's 6 o' clock in the morning. I've slept very little and have to catch a ship. This book is genius, I love it, I can't recommend it enough, it's bound to teach you someting new and fascinating, lots of stuff you always wanted to know but were too afraid/bored/ to ask. Oh, and others you would have never imagined happened. This review which is a mess. I should come back to fix it sometime.

[ReadsandThings · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF'd this about halfway through. This book looked like it would be so interesting, full of things I am interested in, beautifully illustrated, just the kind of book I enjoy. But I had several problems with it that led to me DNFing it.
First, the author just barely skims the surface of every topic. That is of course unavoidable in a book that sets out to cover the entire history of the earth within 400 pages or so, half of which are pictures. But these are topics I am interested in and therefore already know quite a bit about, and to me, there just was not enough new material presented. This is not the fault of the book, I was just the wrong kind of reader for it.
Second, and this is worse in my opinion: Like I said, I already have a good grasp of the concepts presented because I have read many other books on these subjects. The author is a historian, not an anthropologist, and distressingly often I found things that were just... not quite right. Not completely wrong, either, but the impression I got was that the author had to read up on some of these topics himself (after all, who wouldn't, on such a scope) and presented them to the reader without himself having more than a superficial grasp of the concepts involved.
Third, there was an underlying bias towards pre-bronze age humanity being this kind of arcadian idealized society (or rather societies), and sort of unspoiled paradise. Evils such as war and disease are presented to have entered the picture only once weaponizeable metals are discovered and mankind settles down to farm rather than forage for good.
There is probably some truth to this, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the time before that was presented with a rather over-idealized rosy glow. But that may be just my own bias because I was already getting rather tired of this book at that point.
If you want a basic overview of the history of mankind from the beginning to now and don't mind it being somewhat superficial, do pick this up. But if you already have some previous knowledge on the subjects, I wouldn't recommend it.
Although it has a slightly different focus concerning the topics presented, I would recommend picking up A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson over this any day.

[Chee · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. I understand this book is written for English-speaking people by an English-speaking author, and also is very thick and heavy. Nonetheless, as a non-English speaker, I think it is worth reading from cover to cover.

[Nihal Vrana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have first read the What on Earth Evolved? and What on Earth Happened? is like a superior brother to that one. It is such a refreshing way of looking at history and under all embellishments ( which added a lot to the book to be honest) it has such a strong backbone and structure to it, I am in awe of it as a writer.

In the beginning due to my biology background, I kinda scoffed at the information as I trained in it; but as the human history part rolled on it provided me with insights that made me gasp. I don't like the concept of page-turner, actually I have the complete opposite of it where I intentionally read some books slower because deep inside I feel there is lot to gain from the book with commitment. This one was one of those books and I feel , weirdly, kinda sad that it is over now. Highly recommended.

[Weinlachgummi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Einfach Alles, ein ambitionierter Titel. Doch merkt der Autor auch im Schlusswort an, dass er zwar gerne wirklich alles in dieses Buch gepackt hätte, unsere Geschichte dafür aber viel zu umfangreich ist. So musste er einige Geschehnisse, Persönlichkeiten etc. weglassen, aber trotzdem liefert Einfach Alles einen sehr guten Überblick.


Gleich am Anfang findet man ein Inhaltsverzeichnis mit der Gliederung der jeweiligen Etappen. Das Buch ist chronologisch aufgebaut und startet mit dem Kapitel Aus dem Nichts, welches die Jahre 13,8 Mrd. - 450 Mio. Jahre behandelt und endet mit Fortsetzung folgt, 1945 bis heute. Diese übersichtliche Gliederung erleichtert das Lesen, da man so einen guten Überblick behält. Außerdem unterscheiden sich die jeweiligen Kapitel durch eine Farbgebung an der rechten Seite, sodass man auch von außen betrachtet nicht den Überblick verliert.


Trotz seiner 350 Seiten ist es durch die Wahl des Formates ein ganz schöner Brummer. Doch wer nun an öde geschichtliche und naturwissenschaftliche Fakten denkt, liegt falsch. Der Autor schafft es die ganzen Informationen interessant an den Leser zu bringen. Natürlich trägt die Gestaltung dazu bei. So beinhaltet das Buch mehr als 200 Fotos, Illustrationen, Schaubildern und Karten. Da schlägt das Leserherz doch gleich höher. Die Qualität bzw. der Druck der einzelnen Bilder ist richtig gut, nicht verpixelt. Da macht es gleich noch mehr Spaß sich die Fotos anzusehen.


Ich kann nun nicht beurteilen, wie gut die Recherche des Autors war. Zumindest sind mir keine inhaltlichen Fehler aufgefallen, dafür aber ein paar bei der Rechtschreibung / Kommasetzung etc. was ich persönlich aber nicht störend fand. Die ganzen Informationen sind kompakt verpackt und werden dem Leser durch den einfach gehaltenen Schreibstil leicht zugänglich präsentiert. Ich kann mir das Buch auch gut zum Vorlesen vorstellen oder auch zum selber lesen für interessierte Grundschulkinder. Doch auch wenn die Sprache einfach und leicht gehalten ist, ist diese Sammlung an Wissen auch etwas für Erwachsene. Ich bin mir sicher, man entdeckt bestimmt etwas, was man vorher noch nicht wusste. Für mich waren da einige interessante Dinge mit dabei.


Man sollte sich aber darüber bewusst sein, dass das Buch natürlich nicht "Alles" umfasst. Es werden verständlicherweise Schwerpunkte gesetzt, weil es sonst einfach zu viel werden würde. Aber das Buch liefert doch einen guten Ein- und Überblick.

[Stella Tran · Rating 5 out of 5]

"What on Earth Happened" is a "brief" introduction of the history of life on earth. The book was crafted in simple language, conveyed a message without complicating things; which what makes this an interesting and entertaining read, rather than a boring Wikipedia. Still, it's difficult to finish reading in one go due to its massive load of information. "What on Earth Happened" is a quick 24 hour tour through the origin of life. I do not recommend it if you have already knew "what happened" and are looking for something more specifics.

[Leonie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ik lees door mijn dyslexie niet zo snel, zeker niet bij een informatief boek. Dan is dit ook nog een boek waarin veel Latijnse namen voorkomen of namen uit Azië die in mijn ogen allemaal op elkaar lijken. Sowieso erg veel namen. Leuk en interessant, maar het maakt het niet erg makkelijk leesbaar. Dus ik kon niet meer dan een hoofdstuk per keer lezen, terwijl dat gemiddeld maar 12 pagina’s zijn. Maar ondanks de namen was het wel fijn geschreven. Geen lange zinnen en veel dingen worden concreet of beeldend uitgelegd, wat ik prettig vond voor een complex onderwerp als de complete wereldgeschiedenis.
Dit boek heb ik ooit gekocht omdat ik altijd al geïnteresseerd ben geweest in geschiedenis en ik ervan uit ging dat een boek met zo’n titel relatief luchtig zou zijn en toch compleet. Dat klopt wel redelijk denk ik. Voor dit onderwerp was het luchtig geschreven, mijn geschiedenisboeken van de middelbare school waren een stuk zwaarder. En voor zover ik weet was het compleet. Er wordt vrij diep in gegaan op de verschillende gebieden en volken tijdens bepaalde tijdspaden en er wordt ook regelmatig een verband gelegd met een stuk eerder of verderop in het boek. Ik heb wel het idee dat vooral de geschiedenis tot 1800 werd uitgelegd en dat het daarna een snelle samenvatting was van de rest van de geschiedenis. Dat kan ook komen omdat vooral in het deel van de oerknal tot 1800 veel dingen waren die ik nog niet wist en van de recente geschiedenis wel. Wist je bijvoorbeeld dat er ooit vijf verschillende mensensoorten tegelijkertijd hebben geleefd? Ik dacht dat het langzaam geëvolueerd was, maar er hebben dus tientallen jaren meerdere soorten mensen op de aarde geleefd. En wist je dat het woord marathon afkomstig is uit een Grieks gevecht? Nadat Darius de slag bij Marathon verloor van de Perzen werd er een soldaat naar Athene gestuurd om te waarschuwen voor een aanval van het Perzische leger. Hij rende 42 kilometer voordat hij in Athene aankwam. Hij was echter zo uitgeput van het rennen dat hij dood neerviel en de inwoners nooit heeft kunnen waarschuwen voor het naderende geweld. En 2000 leefden er ongeveer 200 miljoen mensen op de aarde, waarvan er 70 miljoen nog in de steentijd leefden. Met name buiten Europa en Azië waren de mensen nog aan het jagen en verzamelen terwijl ze in Europa een ‘moderne’ beschaving hadden opgebouwd. Het meest schokkende stuk uit het boek vond ik dat aan het eind van 1800 negers werden tentoongesteld in dierentuinen in Europese steden. Ze zaten in hokjes net als de dieren en blanke mensen kwamen ze bewonderen alsof ze niet van het menselijk soort waren. Heel bizar.
Al met al dus een leerzaam boek en ik ben blij dat ik heb doorgezet om hem uit te lezen.

[Drew Pyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's quite an accomplishment to fit the world and its history in a book as small as this, but it does work to a degree. It's an interesting read and you'll not want to put it down, but looking back after several years from completing it it's difficult to remember the majority of what was discussed because the narrative is so fast (in some chapters, millions of years). What is good, is there is an emphasis on evolution and how the planets helped the climate which engendered life on earth (such as the collision from Theia which created the moon and tilted the planet, and the chicxulub asteroid that killed the dinosaurs as well as the dispersement of pangaea which brought about biodiversity). If you want low level detail on modern history, you'll need to read something more specific than this.

[Ann Keller · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the advance of the Mogul Empire to the migration of mammals from continent to continent, from the rise of the dinosaurs to the Wright brothers’ first powered flight, this book is a worthy historical compilation suitable for any library. Students of history will thrill to each magnificent chapter and the fine paintings and photographs highlight those special moments that bring history to life. The timeline at the end of the book is also a gold mine of information, enabling the reader to place events in their proper perspective. Beautifully done.

[segosha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made for good breakfast-reading for months

[Lim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Condenses the impossible details of each part of earth's history according to the updated (when book was written) knowledge. Although some of the controversial bits have been changing, particularly regarding early humans, and although a lot of important geologic reasoning is skipped (in order to tell a good story).

The diligent reader has to do her part to research on the finer details regarding carbon dating methods, its principles and limitations, in order to effectively critique or develop a richer understanding.

For someone who wants a condensed introduction, this book is ideal. But don't expect robust arguments and evidence to be made explicit. It would take a thousand times the page length to do so.

One has to read it and find areas where you are interested and read up separately on your own. Eg. Bipedalism itself can take up an entire book.

[Annabel Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the thickest book I've ever finished *feeling accomplished* hahaha. This is some soft of encyclopedia about the Earth, from Big Bang till modern day today.

The book is beautiful print with lots of colourful pictures to make the content less "scary". It has 42 chapters, being divided by timescale, to discuss about specific events/revolutions that happened. The book is comprehensive in the story of the ancient earth and the Western History. However, might be because of the cultural differences, the author didn't provide much on the history of Asia countries which creates a gap when explaining about the reaction of these countries under the invasion of European countries in 19th century.

However, the book has done a good job in translating the complex history of the Earth into a readable version. His writing is witty in some sort of nerdy British way - totally enjoyable.

[Ian Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
This book is not for me, I got stuck in the first chapter. The writing style is of a braggart telling tall stories using all sorts of superlatives to emphasize what happened: Quote from the book describing the formation of the earth and the moon:

"What happened next was a freak. Experts believe two young planets happened to be on the same orbit around the sun, but moving at different speeds. One was the earth, the other another early planet called Theia. About fifty million years after the sun began to glow these two newborn planets ploughed into each other. With a massive jolt, the ailing earth fell on to its side, out of control, a crippled, hysterical, shaking wreck."

I don't know who the target audience is, perhaps 10 year olds, definitely not me!

[James Leong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book which covered literally everything. has a good blend of astrophysics, science, history and even some geography

[Joaquina Pereira · Rating 5 out of 5]

One my favorite books ever, clear, impartial and smart description.

[Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant book of information, a must read for anyone interested in the world.

[Missrobijntje · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een heel leuk en informatief boek over de algemene wereldgeschiedenis. Leest makkelijk weg. Geeft veel inzicht in hoe de wereld zoals hij nu is, is ontstaan.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my. This is such a great book. Wonderful read and great for kids with plenty of pictures and text that you can enjoy. I think its a great book and would be especially good for parents for home ed.

[D.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty necessary book, as world histories do tend to be a little people-centric. What On Earth Happened? provides (or attempts to provide) a more comprehensive view of history, from the Big Bang to present day, incorporating natural history, politics & human accomplishments into the continuum they truly are. Naturally, an extreme limitation to a work like this is its length, but then there would be considerable fewer readers of the multi-volume set it really needs to be. As it stands, this book provides a necessary overview of the planet we occupy to the race who've come to run it. The picture is not encouraging, as the message tends to be that the more people there are and the more space we take up, the worse we are to each other and Earth.
The layout of the book is as good as it can be, packed with visuals to distract from the dense text and graphs of things we don't really need graphs of, but lacking images of things Lloyd goes to great lenghts to describe. The flashy colours of the chapter headings & numbers don't even roughly coincide with the dustjacket flap chart of events, suggesting less thought went into this book's design than it looks like.
My only major beefs with the information as it's offered: Jesus is presented as an actual person in spite of an almost total lack of evidentiary support; Islam gets blamed for ALOT of problems in history since the religion's inception (which may or may not be true, but it seems a little forced). But, obviously, those are just personal issues that not everyone will have.
What On Earth Happened? should certainly be read by a lot of people, but taken with a grain of salt and only as a beginning to an historical education.

[Sharina MS · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting facts and anecdotes loaded in 416 pages! It gives the readers a whole overview on the history of the earth since Big Bang happened and all the subsequent events of the world. I like how the author relates one event to another..it brings us, readers to enjoy the chronology and the chains of event and how a situation would lead to another. However, I do have some reservation on some of the contents of the book:

1) It's so much driven by the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution is not the absolute way to explain how living beings lived and survived at different era. Perhaps the author could briefly discuss what are other theories that scientists had concluded to explain this phenomena

2) How can "Israel" is named as a country when the author discussed abt ancient civilization ? "Israel" is created in 1940s. Author should use the name of the country/place recognized during that era.

3) Very little discussion on the civilization existed in the SE Asia archipelago during Europe dark ages until Europe colonization mission.. As we may know, there was a civilization existed in Java. A discussion on what happened at SE Asia and how the civilization and nation are created would be very interesting. (even its not as great as civilization of the Indus etc)


Hopefully there will be an updated version of this book!

[Andy Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

A superb condensed and chronological history of the world. Geography of a fine calibre! A delight for anyone with an interest in the world and our future. It includes some useful summary tables and it filled one or two gaps in my knowledge of what went on. I like books that have websites too: http://www.whatonearthhappened.com/



It is on a par with Bill Bryson's book 'A short History of Nearly Everything':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_...

[Birdie Passaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extraordinary book about how the Earth has been formed, how it developed and the entire history of Mankind until our days, ending with pertinent questions about the sustainability of the Planet where we are living.

The way the author describes how the Earth was formed and started to have life as well as how and what happened until the first Homo Sapiens started to walk around our Planet is simply fabulous, serious, grounded on scientific studies and described in a very simple way.

We should all read this book!

[Suzanne Tilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting history of the world starting with the Big Bang Theory and breaks it down and compares it to a 24 hour period. The last 500 years are one hundredth of the last second before midnight. You think this would be boring but it has lots of pictures and maps.

[Vineet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent chronological detail of all that has happened on our planet. Its hard to accommodate everything but the author does a fair job. China and Europe get a lot more space than South America and Australia but thats understandable.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that allows the reader the opportunity to put things into some sort of chronological order & reasons why some events occurred. It would be a great first-step book for anyone interested in the various fields of science but is still at the crossroads to determine direction.

[Luuk M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leuk boek. Op een beknopte wijze de wereldgeschiedenis, mijn huiver was dat het te simplistisch geschreven zou zijn, was geenszins het geval. Compliment aan de schrijver om in 500 pagina's zoveel thema's en onderwerpen te behandelen.

[João Abegão · Rating 5 out of 5]

150 pages in one day, that's a personal record right there. Science and History together are an exquisite combo, you deserve all those 5 stars. I just wished you had recommended reading at the end, because I wanted to continue on this history/science theme.

[Abdul]

A book everyone should read. The story of mother earth for the man on the street

[Stephan Plessis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also fascinating.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books on holiday ever keep me entertained with a fasinating thread of where it all began