The Birth of the Anthropocene

Reviews / Votes

"Excellent." -- Robert Macfarlane * The Guardian * "I can't recall another book that positions the present global crisis in Earth's deep history so well, in a form that can be readily understood by non-specialists. Every ecosocialist should read it." * Climate and Capitalism * "The first book you would want to read to find out the origins, philosophies, and debate surrounding the 'Anthropocene'. . . . A fascinating tour of natural history." * Capitalism Nature Socialism * "Elegant and concise . . . alert to the new relationship that needs to be forged between culture and climate change." * Times Literary Supplement * "Jeremy Davies' concise, erudite and highly-engaging book, The Birth of the Anthropocene, will, I am sure, soon be regarded as one of the best introductions to this new and rapidly evolving field. All [readers] will certainly appreciate Davies' knack for making the complex comprehendible and the daunting manageable." -- Andrew Peterson * World History Connected * "Perhaps the best guide so far to the different senses and timeframes attached to the term [Anthropocene]." * London Review of Books * "A modest book of giant ambition... Davies' work takes us on a much deeper dive into the history of the Earth itself." * The Quarterly Review of Biology * "An excellent commentary, which will serve both committed scholars and early undergraduates equally well . . . Davies' most impressive accomplishment in this book is his ability to ease readers into the key contemporary debates." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History * "Geological knowledge is mixed with political ideas without losing objectivity.... Davies introduces the difficulties of defining geological change, and contextualizes events within a proper time scale." * Conservation Biology * "This lucid and well-argued book stands out for the detailed seriousness and scholarship with which, against all the looser appropriations of the term now current, it considers the meaning of 'the Anthropocene'." * Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism * "The Birth of the Anthropocene is a sweeping and ambitious positioning of our current place in the Earth's long history. . . . Davies' method of periodization carries him through to a new and persuasive way of thinking about the Anthropocene." * Journal of World History *