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Kelsey Ford: From the Stacks: J. M. Ledgard's Submergence (0 comment)
Our blog feature, "From the Stacks," features our booksellers’ favorite older books: those fortuitous used finds, underrated masterpieces, and lesser known treasures. Basically: the books that we’re the most passionate about handselling. This week, we’re featuring Kelsey F.’s pick, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard...
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  • Kelsey Ford: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Grady Hendrix's 'How to Sell a Haunted House' (0 comment)

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The World Without Us

by Alan Weisman
The World Without Us

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ISBN13: 9780312427900
ISBN10: 0312427905
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

#1 Nonfiction Book of 2007 Entertainment Weekly
#1 Nonfiction Book of 2007 Time
Finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award
Salon Book Awards 2007
Amazon Top 100 Editors Picks of 2007 (#4)
Barnes and Noble 10 Best of 2007: Politics and Current Affairs
Kansas City Star's Top 100 Books of the Year 2007
Mother Jones Favorite Books of 2007
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Best Books of the Year 2007
Hudson's Best Books of 2007
St. Louis Post-Dispatch Best Books of 2007
St. Paul Pioneer Press Best Books of 2007

If human beings disappeared instantaneously from the Earth, what would happen? How would the planet reclaim its surface? What creatures would emerge from the dark and swarm? How would our treasured structures — our tunnels, our bridges, our homes, our monuments — survive the unmitigated impact of a planet without our intervention? In his revelatory, bestselling account, Alan Weisman draws on every field of science to present an environmental assessment like no other, the most affecting portrait yet of humankind's place on this planet.

 

Review

"Alan Weisman has produced, if not a bible, at least a Book of Revelation." Newsweek

Review

"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

Review

"An astonishing mass of reportage that envisions a world suddenly bereft of humans." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Review

"Weisman is a thoroughly engaging and clarion writer fueled by curiosity and determined to cast light rather than spread despair. His superbly well researched and skillfully crafted stop-you-in-your-tracks report stresses the underappreciated fact that humankind's actions create a ripple effect across the web of life." Booklist (starred review)

Review

"I don't think I've read a better non-fiction book this year.... [Weisman] writes like Malcolm Gladwell and John McPhee mashed together and set on fast-forward." Lev Grossman, Time online

Review

"[S]o intellectually fascinating, so oddly playful, that it escapes categorizing and clichés.... Written as if by a compassionate and curious observer on another planet, [Weisman's] book restores a sense of wonder not just to one little piece of the cosmos, but to the human race whose amazing deeds have transformed it, and whose equally monumental folly now threatens it." Gary Kamiya, Salon.com

Review

"A sober, analytical elucidation of the effects of human dominance on this planet, intriguing if not especially comforting. This book should be broadly read and discussed." Library Journal (starred review)

Review

"Extraordinarily farsighted. A beautiful and passionate jeremiad against deforestation, climate change, and pollution." Boston Globe

Video


About the Author

Alan Weisman is an award-winning journalist whose reports have appeared in Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, and on NPR, among others. A former contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times Magazine, he is a senior radio producer for Homelands Productions and teaches international journalism at the University of Arizona. His essay "Earth Without People" (Discover magazine, February 2005), on which The World without Us expands, was selected for Best American Science Writing 2006.

4.6 5

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Average customer rating 4.6 (5 comments)

`
miri , January 01, 2013 (view all comments by miri)
Fascinating, but depressing.

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Marie D , January 08, 2012 (view all comments by Marie D)
Probably the most memorable book I read in 2011... I learned about incredible places in the world that I had never heard of before (Cappadocia, Turkey; the Białowieża Forest in Poland and Belarus that is the last fragment of virgin European forest) and considered issues about a humanless world that didn't even occur to me. The book always amazed with its facts and history and hypothetical situations.

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EcoGrrl , September 30, 2011 (view all comments by EcoGrrl)
Just finished this (bought used from Powell's - real books are the way, man!!!!) and loved it. Not a 'treehugger' book, rather a really excellent anthropological look at our society and how the earth would make up for what we've done to it if we were suddenly gone. I loved the historical aspects to this book - I learned so much about how the earth was before humans migrated to different areas and how our activities changed, literally, the landscape of the earth and our footprint on it, and so much damage that we've done that will take millions of years to undo. Great work.

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Cioccolata16 , April 19, 2010 (view all comments by Cioccolata16)
Weisman provides a contrasting view of the world today with what it might look like in a future sans humans. This concept is not a new one, but the approach Weisman takes serves both as a warning for present actions and to humble our species' ego. Combining scientific knowledge of how materials break down and present examples of decaying human artifices, the book does an excellent job of painting a picture of a planet that does not need humans. I liked how there is this acknowledgment that nature will ultimately prevail, but at the same time emphasis on how many of our actions today (such as use of plastics and nuclear weapons) will leave a signature for thousands or millions of years. Fascinating book, a little dull at times, but gets you thinking. Perfect Earth Day read!

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Kelly A , April 09, 2010 (view all comments by Kelly A)
A very interesting look at how much of our infrastructure is propped up, constantly, by human intervention. The natural history got a little textbooky for someone without that background. And it is as I suspected: Cats can survive quite nicely without us, they have just trained people to create kitty lives of leisure.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780312427900
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
08/05/2008
Publisher:
ST MARTINS PRESS
Pages:
416
Height:
.72IN
Width:
5.76IN
Thickness:
.75
Number of Units:
1
Illustration:
Yes
Copyright Year:
2008
UPC Code:
2800312427902
Author:
Alan Weisman
Media Run Time:
B
Subject:
Human-plant relationships.
Subject:
Nature -- Effect of human beings on.
Subject:
Material culture
Subject:
Environmental Studies-General
Subject:
Nature

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