Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World

"One of those rare books that's both sweeping and specific, scholarly and readable...What makes the book stand out is its wealth of historical detail." -Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker

The history of the twentieth century is most often told through its world wars, the rise and fall of communism, or its economic upheavals. In his startling book, J. R. McNeill gives us our first general account of what may prove to be the most significant dimension of the twentieth century: its environmental...