Rudwick tells the gripping story of the gradual realization that the Earth's history has not only been unimaginably long but also astonishingly eventful in utterly unexpected ways.

Making history a science -- Nature's own antiquities -- Sketching big pictures -- Expanding time and history -- Bursting the limits of time -- Worlds before Adam -- Disturbing a consensus -- Human history in nature's history -- Eventful deep history -- Global histories of the earth -- One planet among many.