Five Billion Years of Global Change: A History of the Land

Wood, Denis. Five Billion Years of Global Change: A History of the Land. New York: Guilford Press, 2004. With this book Denis Wood has contributed to the genre of global change literature. The main text contains a history of the land that puts the current changes of the Earth into the context of its entire existence; today’s Earth has slowly developed since the Big Bang five billion years ago. An additional ninety pages are devoted to the review and interpretation of a wide range of scientific literature that ensures the possibility for further and in-depth reading on certain topics. Wood, a trained and experienced geographer and the author of the best-selling book The Power of Maps (1992), is well aware that every picture of the world is interpreted many times. First, by the author who creates a certain picture, and secondly, by the readers, as many times as there are readers. It is no coincidence that Guilford Press advertises Wood’s new oeuvre as for “all readers interested in the history of our planet and concerned about its future,” because every human being is affected. (Text adapted from an H-Net review by This Rutishauser.)