Origins: kaip Žemė mus sukūrė

by Lewis Dartnell

Nuo pirmųjų kultūrinių augalų kultivavimo iki moderniųjų valstybių susikūrimo: „Origins“ nušviečia nepaneigiamą ir akivaizdžią Žemės planetos įtaką formuojantis civilizacijoms.
Kai kalbame apie žmonijos istoriją, visų pirma kalbame apie iškilius valdovus ir vadovus, masinę migraciją ir lemtingus karus. Tačiau ar kada susimąstėme, kokios įtakos mūsų likimui turėjo pati Žemės planeta? Koks yra ryšys tarp Himalajų ir Žemės orbitos arba Britų salų susiformavimo?
Geologinės jėgos buvo atsakingos už mūsų evoliuciją Rytų Afrikoje; kalnuotas reljefas sudarė prielaidas demokratijos vystymuisi Graikijoje; o šiandien JAV rinkėjų balsų pasiskirstymo žemėlapis sutampa su seniai seniai egzistavusios jūros dugno žemėlapiu.
Žmonijos istorija – tai šių stichijų istorija: nuo plokščių tektonikos procesų ir klimato kaitos iki atmosferos cirkuliacijos ir vandenynų srovių.

Genres: History, Science, Nonfiction, Geography, Geology, Anthropology, Nature

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2019

About the author

Lewis Dartnell is an astrobiology researcher and professor at the University of Westminster. He has won several awards for his science writing, and contributes to the Guardian, The Times and New Scientist. He has also written for television and appeared on BBC Horizon, Sky News, and Wonders of the Universe, as well as National Geographic and History channels. A tireless populariser of science, his previous books include the bestselling The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch.

Reviews

[Tharindu Dissanayake · Rating 4 out of 5]

"We are all apes."

Ever since reading 'Sapiens' by Harari, I was looking for similar non-fiction books on history and evolution. Origins is the first one I came across and managed to get my hands on a copy.

"The engine powering all this fervent activity is plate tectonics, and it is the ultimate cause behind our evolution."

With Origins, Lewis Dartnell approaches the story of earth from a very unique perspective, using how plate tectonics and different climatic epochs helped shape the evolution and everything else. As the title itself says, it's literally how 'the earth shaped human history' and not the other way around.

"We have profoundly altered the world, but we only recently acquired such overwhelming dominion over Nature."

The author has selected a categorized approach based on different components of history, rather than progressing along a single timeline. Typically, one would expect a book like this to start at the beginning and progress along a single timeline with different chapters. But here, each chapter will go back to the beginning and start from there until we have reached modern era for that particular component. This allows the reader to dive in deeper than otherwise possible. Also, it allows one to select the areas of interest in case the reader finds the book too long. Each chapter felt like a standalone record (except for the first three introductory chapters) where one could pick any preferred chapter disregarding how the chapters are ordered.

"There's more genetic diversity between two groups of chimpanzees living on opposite banks of a river in Central America than there is between humans opposite sides of the change."

My favorite chapters were the first three introductory chapters where we are introduced to the basics of plate tectonics and 'What we Build With' chapter. Pyramids always make fascinating subjects. Even though it was quite informative, the fourth chapter on geography of seas felt a bit too long, but it was probably me not liking the complicated nature of that part. Throughout the book, we get to go through very informative and technical content on geography, geology, metallurgy, oceanography, plate tectonics, and a lot more.

"We walked the walk before we could talk the talk."

Though it might not be fair to do so, I couldn't resist comparing Origins with Sapiens. Sapiens - one of my all time favorites and a book each sapiens must read - felt like a fiction: excellently written, thoroughly entertaining and clearly interpreted so that easily understood by all. While Origins does carry it's own great style of writing and interesting perspectives, it is somewhat complex and a lot more technical. This, in my opinion, makes the books better suited towards history enthusiasts, unlike the general audience aimed Sapiens. Hadn't I had read Sapiens, I might not have finished this book, considering it to be too complicated. But with Sapiens read, this book help me consolidate what I read before, while adding a lot more details.

"It is through knowing our past that we can understand the present, and prepare ourselves to face the future."

[Charlene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant! 
THIS IS THE BOOK I THOUGHT SHOULD HAVE WON Goodreads Best Science Book 2019. 
I would not recommend getting the Audible version because it does not come with a PDF. In order to truly appreciate this book, you need the PDF or to watch this lecture before you start the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn-U3...

In this book Lewis Dartnell followed how the movement of tectonic plates determined where humans migrated, settled, and brought about agriculture and animal husbandry. Their movement even shaped the political landscape and the wars fought on our soil all over the globe. 
The movement of the plates determined long term weather patterns (climate) that created the very conditions needed for our ancestors to come down from the trees and walk along savanna grasslands on two feet. Once humans were on foot, the moving rocks determined whether an area could provide enough food and water to sustain the hominin species  that evolved in Africa. When some of our ancestors were forced to roam the planet in search of better conditions, it was the rocks that shifted to either allow them to walk to the next continent by building land bridges or shifted to fill the land with water, which isolated entire populations of people far from each other. 

The shifting of rocks literally determined where cities could emerge. If the rocks shifted to collide into one another and made a mountain and valley, it created the type of condition that could support feeding a population because rain would weather the mountains and rinse new and fertile soil down to the land below. With such nutrient rich soil, humans could grow food and raise livestock that could sustain larger populations of their offspring. When  plates crash to make mountains, they also form basins at the base of the mountain. The basin could fill with water and help hominin species survive the dry times. 

The beginning of human evolution:So how exactly did the rocks go about changing the environment in the East African Rift to change it from the humid rain forest that supports tree dwelling apes to the drier climates of the savanna grasslands that would eventually support bipedal apes who would descend from the treetops and walk to cover the globe? 
Long ago, in the area where our species evolved, Earth's crust was stretched and ripped, creating a series of rifts. This allowed magma to bubble up and create new crust of basalt rock, which resulted in nutrient rich soil. Water flooded into one rift creating the Red Sea and into another to create the Gulf of Aden. The Rift Valley itself has protective mountains.

Mountains on either side of the rift serve to do a few important things. Namely, they serve to protect the area from excess moisture, allowing the landscape to change. If you look along the equatorial regions of Earth, it is littered with rain forests -- everywhere that is, except for this one dry spot, which was the birthplace of humans. Importantly, the base of the mountains contained sunken basins that filled with water and became life sustaining lakes. Because of their location, these lakes were particularly sensitive to cosmic cycles, such as the Milankivich cycles. These cycles describe how over 1,000s of  years,  Earth's orbital motion, its axial tilt, and procession affected Earth's solar radiation (the distribution of its heat) and therefor affected climate. 

The Himalayas and Tibetan plateau created a powerful monsoon system over Indian and South East Asia. This huge sucking effect over the Indian Ocean  also drew moisture away from East Africa, reducing the rainfall it experienced. So, instead of rain forest conditions experienced around the rest of the equator, East African dried out and the apes who lived there adapted over the generations to that drier environment. 

The drier conditions, rich soil, and reservoirs of lake waters went a long way to helping our ancestors survive long enough to keep passing down their genes. But, don't leave with the impression that it wasn't still a very challenging environment.  The draining and refilling of lakes, because of their sensitivity to the Milankovitch cycles, made it challenging for the populations who depended on a stable source of water. The take away from this time is that the shifting rocks and subsequent changes in climate in this area eventually created the vast savanna grasslands that served as the starting point for the hominin species as it began the long journey of  spreading across the globe. 

One really interesting aspect of rock-shifting driven climate changes is the accumulation or melting of ice. During colder periods, huge icebergs formed and sucked up the water in the oceans, allowing our ancestors to traverse the oceans on foot. When icebergs melted and flooded once again during warmer periods, populations were cut off from one another and migration was no longer possible.
At this point in the story of human evolution and migration, we can see the rocks shifting, the climate changing, and all of this forcing our ancestors this way of that. What a visual! We don't merely focus on human movement, we look at how Earth moved and changed and how that had a direct effect on where we could evolve, where we could move, what areas had enough nutrients in the soil to allow us to stick around long enough to make cities, to grow food, to raise livestock. It's all just amazing movie to run in your mind! What drove humans to migration across the globe is often attributed to free will and the nature of human spirit, the idea that humans have an internal and insatiable need to explore, or that they simply roamed around in search of food. But the picture is really broader. Spread was not a rapid or directed migration to all corners of the globe, "We must leave Africa and go explore!" In reality, the groups were low population groups who dispersed to avoid cold and drought and seeking more favorable conditions, and were, at every turn, directed by the changes occurring on earth, which were mostly due to the constant slow shifting of its crust.   

A part of this book that I didn't love was the speculation that the variability of lake water in the Rift Valley gave rise to human intelligence. Lewis Dartnell included this research in this book, and I have the highest respect for his work (he is now one of the top three living scientists I admire), so he must have good reason for subscribing to this line of thought. I just cannot yet buy it. I am skeptical of the methods by which people came to this conclusion. 

The argument goes like this:An increase in brain size (among other things) in hominins,  was caused by the filling and draining of the lakes at the base of the mountain along the rift. Because of the position of the Rift Valley, sandwiched in between mountains, the lakes that lay in the basins created by the rock are extra sensitive to the Milankovitch cycles. This means they evaporate and fill, causing instability for the species (hominin and other). The thinking goes sort of like this: Brain size seems to be correlated (some would say caused by) the unstable conditions, because a species has to adapt to these varying conditions, it evolved bigger brains that could solve the problem of adaptation, including working in social groups to problem solve. Neanderthals did not experience these constant adaptation challenges and their smaller brain size reflects this. 

The inclusion of Milankovitch cycles in this book was mind blowing good and served to make this book more than a new repackaging of old information. In addition to putting the picture of human evolution together in a whole new way, by really concentrating on the cycles of earth as well as the evolution and migration of hominins, it brought these cycles to the forefront. Personally, I now want to read and entire book on Milankovitch cycles. However, I don't yet know if I believe that they played a key role in the development of larger brains. It would be really interesting if it were true, but I would need a lot of actual evidence to accept this claim. While trying to gather this evidence, I came across a 2013 article from New Scientist that actually outlined the methods used by some researchers to make a brain size -lake connection. The New Scientists articles stated that researchers compared "climate records with the origin and disappearance of species of early humans, and with changes in human brain size.The presence of lakes in the Rift Valley was a better predictor of human evolution than either global or regional climate, they found, with most major evolutionary events happening during times when lakes were coming and going rapidly.In particular, hominin diversity peaks at 6 species about 1.9 million years ago, just when the Rift Valley lakes were at the peak of their flux. This period also marks the first appearance of the genus Homo, and the biggest leap in brain size with the origin of Homo erectus."

I cannot say I am fully satisfied with these methods and do not  yet feel convinced that researchers are truly measuring what they think they are measuring -- if brain size is a result of extreme varying conditions/adaptability  -- or if they are something else they might not have yet understood. Seems to be a lot of speculation. However, no matter how brain size - lake connection pans out over time, the focus of research included in this book is exactly what we should be looking at if we are going to understand more about how our planet made our species and continued to alter our species. When put together with what we know about how the universe formed our planet and how our planet formed life , we can gain a broader and more complete understanding of how evolution actually works. I would like to have seen some discussion of what role Milankovitch cycles play in the expression of diurnal and annual cycles and internal clocks of species. 

For the rest of the book, Dartnell continued to trace the movement of Earth's rocks along with changes in evolution of human political and social systems. Most enjoyable was his discussion of how agriculture developed in the same manner among groups who had no contact, and how the rocks determined, literally dictated, whether agriculture and animal husbandry could emerge. Early hominins migrated to the Americas but were isolated there. The land bridge between Alaska and Siberia was severed, resulting in no land contact with what we call Russia today. Eastern and Western hemispheres were cut off from each other. There were no interactions with Neanderthal or Denisovans, and no interaction with these natives until Columbus sailed to the Americas. Despite being separated, these isolated early human groups developed similar agricultural practices. They were remarkably similar in domestication of crops and livestock and their development of agriculture. This is mainly because the shifting of rocks -- which helped determine things like climate, nutrient quality of soil, how protected areas were to allow humans to settle -- created the very conditions needed for any non migrating society to remain in a stable place that provided enough nutrients to sustain that population over time. All living things need a constant source of energy to survive. If enough nutrients are not available in a specific spot (a city), then the inhabitants will have no choice but to migrate to a different area or to keep migrating, leading a nomadic way of life, in order to continually supply their cells with the energy needed to remain alive. 

One thing I the video did better than the book was to show how the Mediterranean Sea came to exist and what that meant to human civilization. The mediterranean sea itself is the remnant, a mere puddle, of the once great Tethys Sea. When plates crash, it can crumpled up a coastline and create natural harbors; islands, coves, and bays. In the North Mediterranean it set humans up to create seafaring societies like the Minoans, Greeks, Etruscans, etc. Because of the way water lies in natural rocks formations in this part of the world, these societies were perfectly set up for trading. The southern half  of that plates was not  accommodating because the African continent is being destroyed and does not provide natural harbors. The only exception throughout history was the Nile flowing through the desert and Carthage, which did have a natural harbor. If you already studied how the landscape allowed these civilizations and only these, to challenge the Great Romans, then maybe your mind was not as blown as mine was. All of the stories I read about Rome and Carthage, particularly my favorite The Aeneid, rushed back into my mind and I replayed these classics through the lens of the shifting earth that caused the landscape upon which these dramas played out. I love books that make me shift my thinking about everything. 

Another magical section for me was Dartnell's exquisite retelling of how the expression volta do mar came about. Compared to Eurasia, Europe was left out of exchanges for centuries. It was excluded from trade along the Silk road, excluded from the exchange of goods and knowledge, excluded from interactions with more and varied types of people, and excluded from the types of cultures these interactions can create. It was only in the 1400s that Portuguese and Spanish sailors started sailing into the vast, stormy ocean, which had been avoided, for good reason.  Sailors you could easily leave but then the current would sweep them up, making a return to home impossible. But then they learned about ocean currents and the winds that drive them. They learned more about the workings of their beautiful planet and bam, Volta do mar! That which returns you to from which you came. They learned that if they said away, the winds will take you home. This opened a whole new understanding of the world and gave them access to that world and the other peoples that shared that world with them. They then began exploring and began to discover islands. Then, the rest is history. They became one of the most powerful traders for a time. If this interests you, I suggest reading The Silk Roads (not the new silk roads) by Peter Frankopan. 

I loved Dartnell's volta do mar section so much, it inspired me to make a custom Christmas gift for my son. I put the phrase "Volta do mar!" on one side of a mug and the Fourier Series on the other, with a nice tiny picture of Fourier. Volta do mar is about discovering the laws that govern the planet and, in knowing those laws, being able to see the world in an entirely new way that changes everything from that point on. My son is extremely passionate about math and we discussed how Fourier changed the way we see reality. I hope one day, armed with more and more knowledge about how the universe and everything in works, he too might make some exciting discovery. 
Rest of review in comments section

[Rossdavidh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewis Dartnell is a "professor of science communication", it says on the dust jacket to this book. I didn't know that was a thing, but goodness knows we could use all of that we can get. Dartnell is using his (rather good) science communication skills, here, to tell "Big History" on the scale of the Earth's lifespan. This is the sort of book where you get an explanation of 21st century voting trends in the U.S.A. or the U.K., from an analysis of plate tectonics and the biology of the Cretaceous Period or the mid-to-late Palaeozoic. Believe it or not, he makes a reasonable case both times, and backs it up with maps that show the relationship. Hint: plantations were made where the soil chemistry favored growing cotton, and coal was deposited more in some places than others.

Whether you think this kind of thing enlightens or obscures the issues of, say, colonialism or slavery or the Resource Curse of oil-rich nations, is probably a question of personal preference. It is undeniably effective at giving you perspective. The ways in which European colonial empires depended on the arrangement of our continental plates (and the oceans in between them), is a great example. Do you think it is an interesting question as to why it was that Europe colonized Africa, Asia, and the Americas, rather than the other way around? Or do you think that is just taking our attention off the human question of whether or not it was an ethical thing to do? I personally think the former, but I don't doubt that there are many intelligent people who are of the latter opinion.

Dartnell makes excellent use of graphics in his book, and not only the maps (although they are good as well). I think I have never seen as good an explanation of how and why the Earth's wind and water currents circulate around the globe, and how sailing ships utilized this to knit the separate continents together, as we see here. The discussion of how our geology leads to our economy, from fossil fuels to metal ores to every other element of economic consequence, is both readable and entertaining.

If I have any quibble (and I don't particularly) with this treatment, it is the absence of any discussion of disease. The consequences of climate and biology on our history are many, but disease has an outsized role, arguably bigger even than geology. But, you can't cover every topic in one book, and perhaps he will pick up that topic in a future work?

Our current news environment is essentially the exact opposite of Dartnell's approach here: hyper-now, fresh news, much of which will not even be remembered a few weeks from now, much less actually matter. Dartnell's book is a good way to take the exact opposite approach, and as an antidote to the 24-hour news cycle, the 240 million year news perspective is an excellent remedy.

[Peter Tillman]

Nature gave this book a good writeup at https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158... -- but see Michael Cayley's review, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... : "It is very much a journalistic read, with some sweeping and sometimes simplistic generalisations and some repetitiveness." On the third hand, here's a positive review by a geologist: "Geology is destiny: Humans’ flexible intelligence emerged as a response to a rapidly changing landscape." WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/origins-... (paywalled)

I'll take a look at this one when the library gets a copy. Mixed reviews, so who knows?

[Sense of History]

I read this book to gain further insight into the earliest human history. That was a bit disappointing. Dartnell presents a very classic and now slightly outdated picture of the human family tree. In doing so, he makes the mistake of linking the different steps in human evolution, even in the succession of tool making techniques, exclusively with geographic and climatic elements. “The timing of when new hominin species emerged - often associated with an increase in brain size - or fell extinct again, tends to coincide with these periods of fluctuating wet – dry conditions. (…) Like all species, we are a product of our environment. We are a species of apes born of the climate change and tectonics within East Africa.” This is a strong statement, but a very one-sided one. It also says something about how sciences can be very sensitive to moods and trends: these days you cannot open a book or climate change is cited as the ultimate explanation for a certain historical development. In general, I think it is good that phenomena that used to be left out of the picture are taken into consideration under pressure of current events. But simple determinism even when it is about climate should absolutely be out of the question.

Another example: Dartnell claims that the first civilizations were formed on the edge of tectonic plates because of the fertile soil that volcanic activity and many water sources produce there. “Early civilizations seem to have chosen to snuggle up close to tectonic fractures”. That seems to be a very debatable statement. The examples cited by the author, such as the Mesopotamian civilization, seem questionable to me. And he does not mention the first Chinese civilization at all, because it clearly does not suit his case.

I can continue like this for a while. Dartnell is clearly cherry-picking, in function of his thesis that the geographic framework has determined the origin and evolution of human civilization(s). Yet, I have to ackowledge that there are some interesting things in this book about geographic aspects of human history. But it is best to see them as the broader framework within which man himself, in interaction with his environment, has given direction to his existence, alongside many other social, political, economic and cultural elements.

[Marc Lamot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about this book. It has some interesting chapters on plate tectonics, ocean and wind currents and other geophysical phenomena, and how they have shaped our earth over millions of years. Dartnell mainly focuses on the influence of these phenomena on human history. Obviously, geography has had a great impact on human developments. “Cultural, social, economic and political influences are of course important - but planetary processes often form a deeper layer of explanation. While our planet's make-up has not preordained everything, it can provide opportunities or constraints.” That sounds reasonable, but in his concrete elaboration Dartnell makes the mistake of turning this into a very classic determinism: "geography makes human history", and in his story social and cultural factors simply remain out of the picture. More on that in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Origins’ by Lewis Darnell is an excellent general reader book of science describing how the changing geography of Earth for its past 4.5 billion years led to how the Human species developed and spread across the continents.

The short version:

Most of us know the continents move around the surface of the earth because of plate tectonics. In moving about, mountains were created, volcanoes erupted, wind and ocean currents changed. The earth’s path around the sun and the wobble of the earth produced alternating ice ages and extremely warm periods. The ocean became separated oceans which regular rise to cover continents or recede because of water freezing into vast glaciers. Once life started, the scientists think there were vast blooms of varied life forms which briefly lived on the earth and died off almost completely five times that we know of. Rocks weathered away making soils of varying ability to support flora, plants died and were compressed into coal or rotted releasing carbon dioxide, among other elements, into the air affecting atmospheric composition, microscopic critters died and were compressed into oil or rotted releasing some carbon dioxide, too. The tiny critters made oxygen, adding it to the atmosphere. Weather patterns changed so that continents changed from swamps and jungles to deserts to grasslands and back again.

Where land was kind to human life, we flourished. When the land changed, we moved away or died. Our bodies changed to suit the environment as it changed to survive the changes. Some continents ended up with an abundance of resources, others with a paucity. What resources and weather a continent had (flora, fauna, minerals, water, good or poor soil) affected what culture humans developed. The author makes the argument that how humans settled to extract resources has led to where people live and what party they vote for! For example, coal miners live where the coal deposits to be mined are, or were, thus a lot of Labour party voters are there in place to vote en masse. Wind and ocean currents directed how 15th-century explorers explored the earth by ships and where they landed and thus where colonialism occurred. Trade routes that cut through or were blocked by geographic features determined movement of resources. Those societies with access to trade routes grew their cultures with the availability of resources and those who had no or little access to trade developed cultures with fewer resources.

There is much more in the book and all of it’s fascinating. I have never thought about how the Earth’s surface characteristics have affected human societies and cultures, and our inventions and technology developments. The author goes into more detail and fills in my very truncated and summarized history. He describes the development of specific areas of the earth - such as Eurasia, North America, Africa, and the Mediterranean. Why was the north shore of the Mediterranean so amiable to the development of many cultures, while northern Africa only grew the advanced culture of ancient Egypt? Read the book! I wish the author could have given us more. The book is wonderful, gentle readers!

Included are extensive Notes, Bibliography and Index sections. There are very useful and explanatory maps. The author has synthesized a great deal of information into a general reader format without sacrificing any science facts.

[K.J. Charles]

Geographical determinism at work. I didn't find this terribly readable (author gallops through, jamming in as many facts and scientific terms as possible) and it all felt a bit simplistic tbh.

DNF @60%

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers some of the same ground as Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics regarding the impact of geography on human activity. But Dartnell goes deeper and back further, explaining how earth's long ago geological processes have influenced human evolution and development. Some of his connections seem a bit attenuated, but in the long run they mostly make sense. It was a very interesting read, and pretty short, with lots of little nuggets of information in end notes at the end of each chapter. My primary objection to the book is that I think he tried to cover too much in too little space. For instance his chapter on medieval trade is mostly about wind and ocean currents and while he does make clear the relationship to geological processes, that seemed like almost an afterthought. And then I felt his last couple chapters, bringing things up to current day by detailing the sources of coal and oil were a little forced. As if he felt he had to be current and didn't know quite how to do that. However, it was always interesting and I would recommend it.

[Juan Camilo Vélez Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ya me había picado el bicho de la biología. También me había picado el bicho de la evolución. Esto quiere decir que yo arranqué a leer este libro con un gusto adquirido por conocer cómo apareció la vida en la tierra, cómo nuestra civilización llegó a ser lo que es y a donde iremos a parar.

Bueno pues este libro es una valiosa fuente para conocer más sobre estos temas que tanta curiosidad me despiertan. Lewis Dartnell tiene una propuesta narrativa que a mi me cautivó desde el primer capítulo, me devoré este libro en 11 días y creo que hasta me tuve que contener de leer más y más horas porque tenía que trabajar y por supuesto compartir tiempo con mi familia.

La mirada desde la tectónica de placas da cuenta de cómo pudo aparecer nuestra civilización al modificarse la geografía y el relieve. Esto es bastante inquietante porque en principio parece un evento medio aislado de cualquier cosa, pero poco a poco van pasando los años y el paisaje, la tectónica de placas y el clima van explicando porqué unos humanos se comportan de una manera y otros de otra.

Me gustó particularmente eso. La asociación entre las variables geográficas, la topografía, el clima y la tectónica de placas para explicar el mundo tal cual es. Obviamente en este tema aún hay preguntas sin responder, misterios llenos de posibilidades y eso es lo que más valor tiene para mí. El hecho de permitirme divagar por muchos finales, por muchos principios y sobre todo por muchos presentes llenos de nudos. La nuestra, es una historia basada en hechos de la vida real y que si bien mi papel en ella como ser humano es apenas un imperceptible destello, me gusta pensar que hago parte de esta y por lo tanto que puedo imaginarla y por qué no, cambiarla.

En este 2021 en el que recién llega la Curiosity a Marte me salta un pensamiento con relación a este libro y la manera cómo fue el planeta el que nos ayudó a descubrir otros continentes y llegar por otras rutas a continentes ya conocidos. Sueño con la hora en que la ciencia, la tecnología y sobre todo el conocimiento de nuestro vecindario cósmico nos permitan explorar mundos cada vez más lejanos y por qué no, llegar a ellos con pasaje de regreso.

Obviamente no estoy diciendo que estos mundos nos generen encuentros con civilizaciones como la nuestra, simplemente pienso que si gracias a la explicación de este texto logré entender por qué nos comportamos como lo hacemos y por lo tanto la gran dificultad de cambiarnos, es muy importante tener otros mundos a donde ir cuándo infortunadamente acabemos con este.

Cierro diciendo que soy posibilista y optimista, por lo tanto si la mitad de los empresarios, gobernantes y líderes del planeta leyeran esta obra y entendieran que su comportamiento, nuestro comportamiento, subyace de variables que nos trascienden tal vez podamos desafiar nuestro instinto primario de supervivencia, dejar por un momento que nuestro intelecto, empatía y compasión tomen el control y cambiemos la forma como nos relacionamos entre nosotros y con nuestra Tierra.

Cierro la reseña diciéndole que si usted cumple con alguno de los atributos a continuación, usted debería leer este libro:
- Usted es empresario, gobernante o líder a cualquier escala.
- Usted está interesado por cambiar la forma como nos relacionamos con el planeta.
- Usted es líder de un grupo de personas.
- Usted siente curiosidad por el origen y evolución de la vida en la Tierra.
- Le gusta la buena divulgación científica.
- Tiene interés por la biología.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

We may think that we are a separate species from all the others but we are as much a part of the earth as the rocks and soil that we stand on. To start with we are made from the same elements and all the things that you can see around you we are an integral part of this planet. Secondly, if you know where to look and how to interpret the data you can see the traces of our long development in the rocks too.

To begin this story, Dartnell takes us back to that moment in time when we moved down a different and new branch of the family tree, along with other primates. This happened in East Africa in the rainforest belt around the equator, but instead of being dense forest, this part of the world was dry savannah grasslands and it was this difference that altered the trajectory from swinging primate to bipedal creatures. Why this part of the planet was so very different to similar latitudes was down to plate tectonics several million years earlier that led to the East African Rift, a wide deep valley with high mountainous ridges. These cause a rain shadow and stop the formation of forests, hence the dry landscape that was there.

This theme is repeated throughout the book. He looks at the geology of different regions and sees how human beings have exploited the water that seeps up through fault lines or taken advantage of the rich soils close to volcanoes. He explains why the civilisations of the Mediterranean were mostly on the northern coastlines, how we used the rocks beneath our feet to build our homes and how we used cooking to get more nutrients from food. He can even trace the voting patterns of the UK and US in the geology.

This is a book about deep time, how long some things take to come to fruition and pulling together these tiny but significant moments in our history. It also reinforces the view that I have that we are this complex interdependent system and that as a species we have pushed it to the very edge. It makes for a fascinating read and I really enjoyed it. Dartnell is an eloquent and engaging writer and I can highly recommend this.

[Paul Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Origins, Lewis Dartnell takes a similar approach to that of Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel, using a long view to explain why human development progressed in the way it did. In this case, the billions-years process of geology.



Starting with the hypothesis that humans developed the way we did in East Africa due to the climate created by the Great Rift Valley - a drying out of the land leading to the forest being replaced by savanna, amongst other factors - through the forces that raised mountains from which flowed rivers, depositing mineral rich alluvial soils in Mesopotamia and the Indus and Nile valleys, enabling the development of agriculture - extending this to show how voting patterns in US elections closely match the areas where African slaves were brought to farm cotton, and still have large black populations; how these geological forces allowed civilisation to flourish on the North and East coasts of the Mediterranean rather than the South; how the patterns of wind and ocean currents enabled European expansion and colonisation; how geological processes have given us the materials to build structures, make our technology and power our civilisations.



His arguments are well made and convincing, although sometimes written a little simplistically - an indication of this is that the footnotes sprinkled throughout the text are of the ‘fascinating aside’ variety, but I found most to be those I’d consider common knowledge. Perhaps that’s simply as I’m someone who reads quite a lot of this type of thing, of course, and a reader newer to the subject may get more out of these.



Overall, a great overview of how the unimaginably long and powerful processes of geology shape not only our world, but us as a species.

[Emiliya Bozhilova · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
Нетърпима хаотичност в изложението на автора, гарнирана с дървен превод (макар в случая той да е по-малкото зло).

Темата е адски интересна. Климатичните промени, географията и планетарните цикли са ключов фактор в развитието на човека като биологичен вид, както и в по-нататъшнито развитие на човешката цивилизация.

Едно от малкото интересни твърдения на автора (преди да зарежа книгата), е, че всяка промяна на вида на въртене на земята (от по-издължена елипсовидно до по-кръгова орбита), както и наклонът на земната ос, които се случват на ясно разграничими интервали от около 100,000 години, водят до появата или изчезването на ледникови периоди. Понастоящем сме в края на по-топъл цикъл. Всеки един такъв момент между два цикъла е довеждал до еволюционен скок - човешкият мозък е увеличавал обема си. Ставали сме по-умни, защото сме били притиснати от климатичната неволя.

Друга интересна, но спорна теза, е че ранните цивилизации са разположени по разломите между две тектонични плочи. Въпреки риска от земетресения и вулкани, там почвата е по-плодородна и извира вода от дълбоки земни слоеве. Обаче в тази картинка се губят китайците, които авторът удобно пропуска.

Тази чудесна тема е тотално опропастена от Дартнел. В изложението му няма нито ясна хронология, нито ясна структура по някакъв признак. Смесва кълбо от явления и събития, без да обяснява - и мята една и съща тема в различни моменти, често пъти разбъркано. Цялата история на Англия е обяснена в едно изречение - англичаните са велики, защото живеят на остров. О, изненада! А Германия има по-лоша съдба, защото...не е остров. Езикът прелива от паразитни изрази като “както видяхме” и “както ще видим”. Обикновено нищо не сме видели, а това, дето тепърва ще го видим, само обърква логиката. Преводът е мъка. “Вариабилност” - какво повече да коментирам.

Кому и как е дошла идеята този объркан човек да бъде преведен на български, че са пуснали и издание с твърда корица, е просто мистерия. И то не от приятните.

[Alynus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesantă!
Mi-a plăcut abordarea despre cum dinamica tectonică și schimbările climatice au influențat omenirea ca evoluție și cum o fac și astăzi, mai ales din punct de vedere social și economic.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75 stars

This is a broad and general overview of how human history has been shaped by our environment - by the evolution and extinction of plant and animals species, to the geography and geology of region. Dartnell covers things like plate tectonics, rift valleys, mountains, rivers, islands, plains, ocean currents, wind circulation, mineral and clay deposits, coal and oil, changing climate and how these all influenced human history in terms of what we eat, what materials we used for tools and shelter, trade and trade routes, migrations and war, the industrial revolution, and various states of politics from the various Ancient Greek city states to the current U.K and USA voting blocks being influenced by what lies under their feet. The book is interesting and concise, but I do wish Dartnell had gone into more detail and included more examples. This is, after all, a fascinating subject.

[Jorge Zuluaga · Rating 5 out of 5]

En una época de excesiva especialización es increíblemente refrescante leer libros de divulgación que cubren una amplia variedad de disciplinas, pero aún mejor que las conectan en un todo integral. Como diría el fallecido Jorge Wagensberg (fundador y director del Museo la Caixa en Barcelona) "La naturaleza no tiene la culpa de nuestros programas de estudio" y aún así nos esforzamos por "compartimentalizar" el conocimiento.

Este es el atributo más importante (pero no el único) de "Orígenes": romper los límites entre las disciplinas científicas y hacerlo con maestría y sin perder la profundidad exigida por la ciencia.

En un solo texto y con una "excusa" maravillosa, a saber entender las condiciones astronómicos, geológicas, climáticas y ecológicos que rodearon el surgimiento de nuestra especie (un evento de especiación único que ocurrió en la sabana Africana hace unos 200.000 años, determinado casi con toda seguridad por un clima muy cambiante), de allí a la migración de nuestros antepasados (primero algunos homininos, que salieron en distintas oleadas dando origen a Neardentales, Denisovanos y otros humanos, y después de Homo sapiens mismo), la población de todo el planeta incluyendo el continente solitario de América, la transición de nuestra especie de cazadores, recolectores y nómadas a agricultores, ciudadanos y científicos, hasta llegar a las rutas de comercio y exploración de los últimos siglos, Lewis Dartnell nos da lecciones realmente grandiosas de astronomía, biología, antropología, paleontología, geología, ciencias atmosféricas e historia.

¡Todo lo que me gusta en un solo libro!

El libro es asombrosamente entretenido (para el nivel de profundidad de su contenido y la amplitud de las disciplinas que cubre), esta muy bien escrito (y bien traducido naturalmente) y su estructura es impecable, casi científica.

Siendo experto en al menos una (o hasta dos) de las disciplinas que Dartnell cubre, debo reconocer que la precisión del lenguaje, la originalidad de las analogías y las descripciones y la actualidad de los temas demuestran el trabajo juicioso realizado por este biólogo para integrar muchas ideas en una sola y fantástica historia.

Este es el tipo de libro que algún día quisiera escribir.

El libro abunda en referencias que soportan algunos de las afirmaciones más increíbles, lo que permite ir sin demoras a la literatura especializada y buscar los trabajos académicos que soportan estas ideas. Naturalmente esto también significa que algunos de los resultados descritos en el libro podrían volverse historia en unos años una vez se descubran nuevos fósiles o evidencias sobre procesos geológicos y climáticos del pasado remoto; pero así funciona precisamente la ciencia.

Después de "El Ascenso del Hombre" (Jacob Bronowski, 1973) y "Dragones del Edén" (Carl Sagan, 1978), "Orígenes" es, para mí, el mejor libro divulgativo escrito en las últimas décadas sobre el origen y la evolución de la especie humana.

Con seguridad puedo equivocarme y que mejor manera de demostrarlo que leyéndolo.

[Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically a variation on "big history." The structure and focus is different than the more common format of linear progression since the big bang, but many of the key points made were basically similar. The subject is interesting, but the actual points made are rather elementary and/or just rehash ideas that have already been thoroughly popularized.

Did you know that trade routes were shaped by wind and current patterns? Oh, you did. Well...did you know that the locations of mineral deposits influenced where mines and therefore some industries sprang up? Oh, I guess so. Examples of less simplistic but already widely popularized topics include the idea that human evolution was driven by the drying, mosaic climate and landscape of East Africa in the last ~5 million years and the suggestion popularized in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies that Eurasian peoples were at a developmental advantage since there was a large land area within similar latitudes to allow sharing of domesticates in early agriculture.

If you find these topics interesting, then chances are this book has little new to offer because you've already read about them elsewhere. If you don't find these topics interesting, then you probably shouldn't read a book about them.

[Erling]

Interesting to read the bizarre correlations between geographical phenomena and the development of human history.
Though I would have liked it if the scope was somewhat more precise, to explore specific subjects like political implications more closely. This was more like a broad overview of many things, which comes at the cost of not being able to analyse it very thoroughly. The geographical explanations were very informative though at times started to feel like a sum up of facts, in the instances that they were not connected very deeply to the consequences they had for humanity.
Overall a very interesting book though

[Ricardo Carrión Libros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Les cuento de este libro en mi canal de youtube https://youtu.be/c_BLXXaj2aI

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this what science folks think history is supposed to be?

Dartnell claims he wrote a history; the subtitle throws the word 'history' in twice. But this is not a history. The book has no narrative thread holding it together. It is not a history as much as a series of facts paraded before the reader one after the other. Dartnell moves back and forth from topic to topic so quickly that I was worried I was going to get whiplash trying to keep up.

One example, over just a couple of pages, Dartnell bounces from the way that the geology of the North Sea provided Norse Fishermen with ways to colonize North America to how it helped the Dutch finance windmills, to how it helped them develop the financial institutions of local capitalism, and then he pivots to talk about Tasmania and how the sea there isolated the indigenous population and then he scoots back to Europe and the origins of the early modern empire.

In trying to talk about everything, Dartnell says nothing about anything. To say something interesting requires writers to brood over a subject, interrogating it, hovering over it, dealing with it over pages and pages. Dartnell does not say anything, because he speeds through each topic.

Furthermore, I do not think he takes history seriously. I actually got a lot out of the portions of this book where he wrote about science (the reason I rated this book two instead of one star). But, whereas the science he discusses (I am thinking specifically of the passages where he discusses the way the air currents, water currents and monsoons work) is remarkably well written and well researched, his historical research is half-assed.

Reading over his history of the Silk Road seemed like I was reading something from an undergrad who had just copied a Wikipedia article. He mentions that one route of the Silk Road passed through Urumqi, but Urumqi was not really built until the 1760's, long after the Silk Road had ended. I could nitpick my way through the entire discussion of the Silk Road, because there are so many little problems with what Dartnell wrote, but the main point is, he did not do that much research on the Silk Road.

In another section, he talks about the way that the geology of the American South affects modern voting patterns. He points out that there was a deposit of rich fertile soil in the region that maps very closely to where large portions of black folks live which is why those counties vote so heavily for the Democratic Party in a heavily Republican region. But, and this is the problem with his history, he never really deals with the historical portions of his book, he jumps straight from science to conclusions about history without really discussing history, ignoring the real drivers of these voting patterns.

Dartnell took an interesting idea and made a hot mess out of it. Dartnell tried to meld science writing with history, but he knew nothing about history, and he did not even bother trying to learn.

Trainwreck.

[Долгион · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's another one of those science-for-laymen books that I like so much. The emphasis is more on discussing the big questions with enough depth to teach you something concrete without being overbearing (most of the time) with the nitty-gritty of the science. The chapters are split up into different eras of human history always with an angle of looking at a specific aspect of earth's history to draw connections. This is how Dartnell explains how East African primates were naturally selected for more complex cognitive abilities due to the peculiar geographical circumstance of that region and how that came about due to the plate tectonics. As you might imagine, this book ask you to keep a lot of (new) knowledge in mind from seemingly unrelated fields so that you can follow the chain of causation.

For me, some chapters were more interesting than others, simply due to being more interesting in some sciences than others. I'm no big geology guy, so the chapters talking about limestone, coal and so on weren't so thrilling. But then there were others such as the one about how Portugal and Spain were poised to "discover" the New World ahead of others partly due to their location, the political situation and above all the winds and streams of the Atlantic ocean.

The book also has a lot of neat bits of trivia that I often found interesting. Did you know that humans, somewhere down the evolutionary ladder used to be able to create vitamin C in their livers but lost that ability later on and now we're all drinking orange juice? Overall this is a recommendation from me. I feel this could be a book does a good job of sparking that curiosity (kind of the point of these types of books) that will encourage many people to dive deeper into the different branches of science.

[Aykut Karabay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yeryüzünün tarihi insanlık tarihini nasıl şekillendirdi? Aslında bu alt başlık kitabın içerdiği bütün konu bütünlüğünü özetliyor. Jeoloji, antropoloji, biyoloji, iklim bilim ‘in ışığında yeryüzünün ve ona bağlı olan bütün canlıların ve tabii insanoğlunun tarihini anlatıyor. Daha çok jeolojik verilerle yeryüzünün, kıtaların, doğanın oluşumu, gelişimi, Evrimi ve yeryüzüyle beraber canlıların oluşumunu ve evrimini ele almış. Aslında dünya tarihinin büyük çoğunluğunun buzul çağında geçtiği, şu an içinde bulunduğumuz dönemin daha öncekiler gibi göreli olarak kısa süreli bir buzullararası dönem olduğunu anlatıyor ancak gelişen teknolojimiz ile küresel ısınma yüzünden nasıl doğanın dengesini alt-üst ettiğimizi gösteriyor.

Kitabın en dikkate değer yanlarından biri’de, atmosfer yapısının, kıtaların konumunun, iklim değişikliklerinin vs gibi doğal olaylarının insanlık tarihini ve sosyal olayları nasıl etkilediği inkar edilemez örneklerle gösteriliyor.

İnsanoğlunun atalarının içinde bulunduğu doğa ile mücadele etmeyi öğreniyor. Bu mücadele sırasında beyininin büyümesi ile teknolojiyi geliştiriyor ve dünyanın efendisi haline geliyor. Ancak bu kimyasal, zehirli atıklarla aynı zamanda içinde bulunduğu ve ait olduğu doğanın bütün ahenginin alt üst olmasına yol açıyor ve bu muhteşem avantajı kendisine dönen ok gibi bir dezavantaja dönüşüyor. Aslında kitap biraz da; İnsanlık tarihini şekillendiren yeryüzünün, insanlık tarafından ihanete uğramasının öyküsü.

Kendimizi, içinde bulunduğumuz sistemi, dünyanın geldiği ve gitmekte olduğu gidişatı, neler yapabileceğimizi sorgulayabileceğimiz, okuyana çok şey katacağını düşündüğüm bu kitabı herkese tavsiye ederim.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This started out rather slow & repetitively for me, but it got a lot more interesting from chapter 4 on. I've read several other books that covered the first 3 chapters in even more detail & Dartnell made his points several times, so it really dragged. I quit for a while, but picked it back up & am glad I did. His common theme, the title of the book, was extremely interesting & he had great examples. He traced why skyscrapers are built where they & even tied voting blocks to formations from millions or billions of years ago. It was impressive & captivating.

Table of Contents
Introduction
1 The Making of Us
2 Continental Drifters
3 Our Biological Bounty
4 The Geography of the Seas
5 What We Build With
6 Our Metallic World
7 Silk Roads and Steppe Peoples
8 The Global Wind Machine and the Age of Discovery
9 Energy
Coda

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 on base. Would be a 4 as an introductory work for those new to geography and geology and its impact on the humanities-but I myself am far from new to the topic.

Dartnell takes us on a resource or geographic based theme for each chapter that ties in some aspect of human evolution or history with the physical elements of the Earth. Think of this are a more geological and less anthropological version of Guns Germs and Steel (but perhaps with a bit less commitment to staying with the central thesis consistently).

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertainingly-written narrative on how the forces of the planet (i.e. plate tectonics, ocean currents, climate bands, prevailing winds, raw materials, etc.) have influenced human evolution, life and history. The science is "popular" and should be understood by almost any reader.

[Boy Blue · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of scope you can't really get bigger than how the earth shaped human history. Unfortunately, this scope makes for a seriously unwieldy topic. The earth is around 4.54 Billion years old, good luck compressing that into 300 pages. Even if we just take the advent of hominins we're looking at 2 Million Years. The best praise I can give Dartnell is he does his best and the book gets better throughout. There are countless times where Dartnell restrains himself and says we'll deal with that in a later chapter, which is a strange technique for him to use because he has some quite legendary digressions and leaps of logic already in there but in fairness to him he is a man of his word. In some ways I guess it lends itself to a sense of structure and order in the book that otherwise isn't really there. Some of the chapter themes are almost arbitrary but then as already mentioned with a title like How The Earth Shaped Human History you're already free soloing Everest naked.


I've read quite a few reviews both on Goodreads and elsewhere criticising Dartnell's environmental determinism and asking why he doesn't consider social and cultural factors as the main drivers of human history. It astounds me that people could pick up the book, read the title and the blurb on the back and still expect a cultural and sociological analysis of human history. This is a geological and biological look at human history, it's all about determinism. I don't for a second think Dartnell is trying to argue there aren't other factors involved, he's just choosing to examine geology's and biology's role.


Now for comparisons, yes there's similarity with Guns, Germs and Steel, and yes there's also similarity with Sapiens. They're all reductionist in their approach, trying to reduce human history to a number of causes countable on one hand and in many ways that's the nature of the game for popular science writers. They wouldn't reach millions of people if they wrote thousand page tomes. Personally I found Dartnell's approach and tone the most easily digestible. Guns, Germs and Steel is the seminal text in this space, Sapiens is the most recently popular, but Origins seems the most pure.


Now for the actual content. Ultimately, the main points Dartnell makes can be reduced into a single paragraph.


Plate tectonics created a climate that allowed for hominins to rise and spread, these tectonics continued to guide hominid development. The mountains thrown up were eroded into fertile river valleys. The Earth's tilt, spin, and orbital stretch AKA obliquity, precession, and eccentricity further spiced things up with ice ages (running in milankovitch cycles) and weather patterns. Plate tectonics also provided material for building and growing in the form of metals and minerals.

The reason to read the book is to see these points play out in dozens of fascinating examples.


You can even reduce the thesis to a single sentence and here I turn to renowned writer John Angus Mcphee to really blow your mind.


If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.


This is the first book I've ever read where I've actually been excited to read the footnotes. All the footnotes are delectable little nuggets and I'm not sure I'll be able to digest boring footnotes ever again now. The footnotes matched with the trove of information in the main body text will fascinate a lot of readers. There will be many out there for who it's old news but then they probably won't be reading a book like this.


For example I didn't know that humans previously had the ability to synthesise Vitamin C. We had a mutation in our genetic code post divergence from other apes and we lost the ability to make ascorbic acid. This explains why we cultivate citrus and various other plants that contribute Vitamin C to our diet. It's also part of the reason many ancient cultures eat the liver or kidneys of animals, because that's where they produce Vitamin C. Guinea Pigs are one of the few other animals that get scurvy like us.


Another fact that I found fascinating was that the Tibetan plateau feeds almost all the major rivers of Asia. This is why the Chinese want it. I'd read some paper thin bullshit in Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics about making the mountains the natural border to India etc. The military reason might be a slight part of it but it's securing China's water future that's the real reason. Mentioning Prisoners of Geography, this is the book I wish Prisoners of Geography had been.


There are other things for people who consider themselves political animals about the distribution of Labor voters in the UK and the coal deposits laid down in the carboniferous period. Similar phenomena can be seen in the US with other geographical features. Something that isn't that startling but might tickle some people's pickles. You certainly couldn't do that analysis in Australia, you won't find people living on or near the giant open cast coal pits in Australia. Fly in fly out ruins that analysis.


I'd say Dartnell saves his best for the final chapter, Chapter 8 - The Global Wind Machine and The Age of Discovery is almost worth the price of admission alone. There will be some out there for whom Dartnell's information is all old news. Lucky them.

[Goda l Knygu_jura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ar Jums įdomu, kokią įtaką žmonių gyvenimui turi Žemės planeta? Kaip keičiantis amžiams, keičiasi ir ji? Koks yra ryšys tarp, atrodo, tolimiausių Žemės kampelių? Nuo ko priklauso civilizacijų susikūrimas? Kas padeda išgyventi? Kas prieš tūkstančius metų nulėmė, kaip žmonės gyvens dabar? Šioje knygoje į šiuos ir į dar daugiau klausimų ir atsakoma.

Tai negrožinės literatūros knyga, savyje turinti daug istorijos, geografijos ir biologijos. Ir tikrai negaliu sakyti, kad viskas man buvo nauja, nes nemaža dalis dalykų buvo išmokti mokykloje ir juos puikiai atsimenu. Tačiau buvo ir nemaža dalis naujų žinių, kurios šioje knygoje pateiktos labai įdomiai. Struktūriškai galvojau, kad palengva nuo seniausių laikų keliausime prie dabartinių, tačiau kiekvieno skyriaus pradžioje, pradedant kalbėti apie vėjus, energiją, gamtines iškasenas, žmonių atsiradimą, vandenynus ir jūras ir t.t., autorius jungia, apjungia, susieja viską, kas buvo kalbėta su naujais faktais, susiedamas į vientisą istoriją.

Pradžioje buvau išsigandus, kad gal sunkiai skaitysis, tačiau greitai šiuos nuogąstavimus nustūmiau į šalį, nes tekstas įtraukiantis, įdomiai parašytas ir pakankamai lengvai skaitomas. Manau, prie to daug prisidėjo ir tai, kad skaičiau ją po truputį, ne kiekvieną dieną ir ne po didelį kiekį, taip lengviau įsisavinau informaciją ir nesusidūriau su skaitymo problemomis! Ir man labai patiko! Man šios temos labai įdomios ir nors, kaip minėjau, buvo žinotų dalykų, man vis tiek patiko apie juos skaityti dar kartą!

Taigi, jeigu ieškote kažko panašaus, arba sudomino atsakymai į apžvalgos pradžioje užduotus klausimus - labai rekomenduoju Origins! Paprastai, pakankamai lengvai, tačiau įdomiai ir naujai papasakota, įtraukianti ir leidžianti sužinoti naujų dalykų!

[Karla Yareni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me tardé mucho en leer este libro, ya que definitivamente tiene muchos términos geológicos y referencias geográficas que no entendía al 100, además de ser un libro muy extenso. Vale mucho la pena leerlo si te interesa saber cómo se moldeó la historia de la humanidad, desde la formación del planeta y su posición astronómica hasta la geología. Muy interesante.

[Povilas Rudinskis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labai gera, 10/10. Atskleidžia mūsų ir geologijos ryšius. Viskas kas įvyko iki mūsų yra gerai, nes suformavo mus. Saugokit planetą.

[Milan]

U knjizi „Iskon“ astrobiolog (morao sam da guglam da vidim šta je to) Luis Dartnel nam objašnjava koje je naša planeta, konkretno kretanje tektonskih ploča, uticalo ne samo na nastanak i evoluciju čoveka, već i na političke i društvene događaje u našoj istoriji.

Čitanje ove knjige omogućilo mi je da iz sasvim novog ugla gledam na, na primer, veliku seobu naroda, izgradnju Kineskog zida, mongolska osvajanja, ali i velika geografska otkrića, industrijsku revoluciju, pa čak i na rezultate izbora u Americi.

„Sve je povezano“, kaže Dirk Džentli. A Dartnel nam pokazuje da zaista i jeste.

Ova knjiga ima nekoliko sjajnih i interesantnih priča, ali autor nije imao snage ili znanja da ostane u fokusu, tako da postoje značajni pasaži u knjizi u kojima nas zatrpava gomilom informacija i podataka u kojima se gubi cela priča.

Nastala na njihovom tragu knjiga je namenjena onima koji su uživali u knjigama „Mikrobi, puške i čelik“ Džareda Dajamonda i Hararijevog „Sapijensa“. Opet, ostaje velika žal što autor nije uspeo da dobro uradi domaći zadatak i dosegne visinu lestvice koju su njegovi prethodnici postavili.

Zanimljivo, interesantno, ali daleko od perfekcije.

Više o ovoj knjizi možete pročitati u malo dužem tekstu na ovom linku: http://www.bookvar.rs/planine-iz-doba...