The World Without Us
On Sale: 07/22/2008
The World Without Us
On Sale: 07/22/2008
Format:
National Book Critics Circle Award
About the Book
National bestseller, and Finalist for the National Book Critics' Circle
A penetrating, page-turning, groundbreaking tour of Earth without people
Most books about the environment build on dire threats warning of the possible extinction of humanity. Alan Weisman avoids frightening off readers by disarmingly wiping out our species in the first few pages of this remarkable book. He then continues with an astounding depiction of how Earth will fare once we’re no longer around.
The World Without Us is a one-of-a-kind book that sweeps through time from the moment of humanity’s future extinction to millions of years into the future. Drawing on interviews with experts and on real examples of places in the world that have already been abandoned by humans—Chernobyl, the Korean DMZ and an ancient Polish forest—Weisman shows both the shocking impact we’ve had on our planet and how impermanent our footprint actually is.
Critical Praise
“The book boasts an amazingly imaginative conceit that manages to tap into underlying fears and subtly inspire us to consider our interaction with the planet.” — Washington Post
“An excellent springboard for an often fascinating look at our planet’s biology and ecology.” — Toronto Star
“[No] end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it story . . . is more audacious or interesting than Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us.” — Boston Globe
“A refreshing, and oddly hopeful, look at the fate of the environment.” — BusinessWeek
“Alan Weisman has produced, if not a bible, at least a Book of Revelation.” — Newsweek
“Grandly entertaining.” — Time
“Brilliantly creative. An audacious intellectual adventure. His thought experiment is so intellectually fascinating, so oddly playful, that it escapes categorizing and clichés.” — Salon.com
“The World Without Us gradually reveals itself to be one of the most satisfying environmental books of recent memory, one devoid of self-righteousness, alarmism or tiresome doomsaying ” — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“An astonishing mass of reportage that envisions a world suddenly bereft of humans.” — Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“One of the most ambitious ‘thought experiments’ ever.” — Cincinnati Enquirer
“This is perhaps my favorite book this year. At once the most harrowing and, oddly, comforting book on the environment that I’ve read in many years.” — Louise Ehrdrich, author of Love Medicine and The Birchbark House
“I don’t think I’ve read a better non-fiction book this year.” — Lev Grossman, Time Book Critic
“This is one of the grandest thought experiments of our time, a tremendous feat of imaginative reporting!” — Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature
“Fascinating, mordant, deeply intelligent, and beautifully written.” — James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency
“Alan Weisman offers us a sketch of where we stand as a species that is both illuminating and terrifying. His tone is conversational and his affection for both Earth and humanity transparent.” — Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams
“The imaginative power of The World Without Us is compulsive and nearly hypnotic.” — Charles Wohlforth, author of L.A. Times Book Prize-winning The Whale and the Supercomputer
“The scope is breathtaking...the clarity and lyricism of the writing itself left me with repeated gasps of recognition about the human condition. I believe it will be a classic.” — Dennis Covington, author of Salvation on Sand Mountain
-Resources
Product Details
- ISBN: 9781554682263
- ISBN 10: 1554682266
- Imprint: Harper Perennial
- On Sale: 07/22/2008
- Pages: 432
- List Price:22.99 CAD
- BISAC1 : SOCIAL SCIENCE / Future Studies
