Journalist Weisman offers an original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders, and paleontologists, he illustrates what the planet might be like today if humans disappeared. He explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence;...

Neil MacGregor's radio series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' has been a unique event that has set a benchmark for public service broadcasting in the UK and across the world. This book is the tie-in to that event, reproducing the scripts describing the objects that made us who we are.

"The Global Lives of Things considers the ways in which 'things,' ranging from commodities, to works of art and precious materials, participated in the shaping of 'globalisation' in the early modern period. This volume traces the movements of objects through human networks of commerce, colonialism and curiosity. It argues that material objects mediated between the forces of global economic exchange and the constantly changing identities of individuals,...