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  • The Earth Transformed

  • An Untold History
  • By: Peter Frankopan
  • Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
  • Length: 29 hrs and 11 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (93 ratings)
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The Earth Transformed cover art

The Earth Transformed

By: Peter Frankopan
Narrated by: Peter Frankopan
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Summary

A 2023 highlight for: BBC News, Sunday Times Culture, Financial Times, New European, Guardian, New Statesman, The Times, The Week, Waterstones, Blackwell's

Most people can name the influential leaders and major battles of the past. Few can name the most destructive storms, the worst winters, the most devastating droughts.

In The Earth Transformed, ground-breaking historian Peter Frankopan shows that engagement with the natural world and with climatic change and their effects on us are not new: exploring, for instance, the development of religion and language and their relationships with the environment; tracing how growing demands for harvests resulted in the increased shipment of enslaved peoples; scrutinising how the desire to centralise agricultural surplus formed the origins of the bureaucratic state; and seeing how efforts to understand and manipulate the weather have a long and deep history. Understanding how past shifts in natural patterns have shaped history, and how our own species has shaped terrestrial, marine and atmospheric conditions is not just important but essential at a time of growing awareness of the severity of the climate crisis.

Taking us from the Big Bang to the present day, The Earth Transformed forces us to reckon with humankind’s continuing efforts to make sense of the natural world.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Peter Frankopan (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"He has the gift of perspective - the capacity to see the wood for the trees—which he combines with a Tolstoyan knack for weaving little details into the broader sweep of human affairs." (Jamie Susskind, Daily Telegraph)

"Frankopan is a brilliant guide to terra incognita." (Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times)

"Peter Frankopan has a sharp eye for startling facts." (Richard Drayton, Times Literary Supplement)

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What listeners say about The Earth Transformed

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    5 out of 5 stars

Such a shame.

Two hours in and I can't stand it anymore. Mr Frankopan is a brilliant author, but a narrator he is not.
I will be buying a physical copy to read as so far the content has been great.
If this is a strategy to double his book sales then it's worked with me.

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23 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

I couldn’t listen to this book

The author’s narration of his book was so stilted that I could only listen for half an hour before I gave up. A great shame as I enjoyed the New Silk Road.

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13 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

so disappointed

I have read other books by theis author with great pleasure but this has been like listening to white noise. I'm sure that the research has been meticulous but is it really scholarly to repeatedly cherry puck random facts to support an argument.and then conclude that maybe something happened because of factor a or factor b or factor c or a combination of these things? I'm so sorry to be negative but this was poor.

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12 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration, great writing.

I was very interested in this book but unfortunately the author is a terrible narrator and I had to stop listening. What a shame.

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8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Not the easiest listen

…if you want a soothing story. The author is not the best narrator (often the case with authors) and I found it much easier to listen to at 0.8 speed to begin with then 0.9 as I got further in to it. For anyone who is a bit older and who has read a fair bit there is a lot of stuff you’ll already know about, but there is enough novelty to keep it interesting and the most fascinating aspect for me is how he ties global events and climate together. If you are interested in history and climate this is worth a listen (although probably a better one to read if you are able to do so)

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8 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • z
  • 08-05-23

Book - v good, narration - unfortunately v bad

Came to leave a comment about the poor narration - reassured to find other reviewers having the same experience.

Book is great - clearly well informed and enlightening. Although the early chapters do not always flow very well, and it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between fact (researched, evidenced etc) and assertion in the context of the first couple of chapters.

Narration is very poor - the flow, cadence and word emphasis in Peter’s reading very frequently scrambles the gist of the sentence. It sounds as though he’s reading each sentence for the first time and trying to work out where he’s going with it on the fly.

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7 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • JJ
  • 06-05-23

Excellent book poor narration

Fabulous book but Peter Frankopan is a way better author than narrator. Five star book one star narration.

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7 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Truly underwhelming

Disappointing book from such author. Narration is even worse. I would definitely not recommend this book.

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6 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Struggling to get through it

It is extremely engaging subject matter and like Peter Franco pens other books it is very well constructed.
However, I am struggling with his 'university accent' and weak narration. I'm on chapter 4 and wondering how far I can go.
A brilliant author who needs to team up with an experienced reader/performer for this important and valuable book.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Past, Present and Future.

This book make me see the world in different perspectives by moving forward I will starting doing things different.

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2 people found this helpful