Bill Bryson is one of the worlds most beloved and bestselling writers. In A Short History of Nearly Everything, he takes his ultimate journeyinto the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. Its a dazzling quest, the intellectual odyssey of a ...Bill Bryson is one of the worlds most beloved and bestselling writers.
In A Short History of Nearly Everything, he takes his ultimate journeyinto the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. Its a dazzling quest, the intellectual odyssey of a lifetime, as this insatiably curious writer attempts to understand everything that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author puts it, "? This is, in short, a tall order.
To that end, Bill Bryson apprenticed himself to a host of the worlds most profound scientific minds, living and dead. His challenge is to take subjects like geology, chemisty, paleontology, astronomy, and particle physics and see if there isnt some way to render them comprehensible to people, like himself, made bored (or scared) stiff of science by school. How did anyone ever figure these things out? On his travels through space and time, Bill Bryson encounters a splendid gallery of the most fascinating, eccentric, competitive, and foolish personalities ever to ask a hard question.
In their company, he undertakes a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only this superb writer can render it. From the Hardcover edition.