num_pages: 210
description: From the outwash plains of Brooklyn to Indiana's drifted diamonds and gold, John McPhee's In Suspect Terrain is a narrative of the earth, told in four sections of equal length, each in a different way reflecting the three others-- a biography; a set piece about a fragment of Appalachian landscape in illuminating counterpoint to the human history there; a modern collision of ideas about the origins of the mountain range; and, in contrast, a century-old collision of ideas about the existence of the Ice Age. The central figure is Anita Harris, an internationally celebrated geologist who went into her profession to get out of a Brooklyn ghetto. The unifying theme is plate tectonics-- here concentrating on the acceptance that all aspects of the theory do not universally enjoy. As such, In Suspect Terrain is a report from the rough spots at the front edge of a science.In Suspect Terrain is the second book in a series on geology and geologists, presenting a cross section of North America along the fortieth parallel, and gathered under the overall title Annals of the Former World . The other books in the series are Basin and Range , Rising from the Plains , and Assembling California .
language: English
title: In Suspect Terrain
titlecomplete: In Suspect Terrain (Annals of the Former World, 2)
genres: Geology, Biography, Essays, Nature, History, Science, Geography, Natural History, Nonfiction, Travel
ratings_count: 1111
series: Annals of the Former World
publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux