Publisher's Synopsis
Drawing on a staggering range of references across disciplines including geology, astronomy, archaeology and palaeontology, Ian Rankin outlines his radical ideas about the world's past. Contrary to conventional scientific thinking, the evidence he has examined has convinced him that the history of our planet is not one of gradual change, as proposed by Darwin's theory of evolution, but a story of successive, yet systematic, global catastrophes that have wiped almost all trace of previous civilisations from the face of the Earth.
