Something New Under the Sun

Humans have long transformed the planet, scratching its surface for stones and ores, planting and harvesting crops, sparking fires for light and heat. But since the dawn of industrialisation and especially since 1950, economic, technological and demographic changes have driven rapid and ongoing shifts in patterns of pollution, human health and rising sea level and temperatures.
Something New Under the Sun offers a new way to understand twentieth-century history: through environmental change. Threading lucid scientific explanations with captivating stories, J. R. McNeill's prize-winning history chronicles humanity's deepening imprint on the planet in an even-handed account that seeks, above all, to explain. With updated data, stories and new discussions of climate change and climate politics, this paperback edition remains the definitive account of the most urgent topic of our time.

About the author

J. R. McNeill is Distinguished University Professor at Georgetown University. The author of award-winning works in world and environmental history, he has served as president of the American Society for Environmental History and the American Historical Association. He lives in Maryland.Bathsheba Demuth is an environmental historian at Brown University, specializing in the United States and Russia, and in the history of energy and past climates. She has lived in and studied Arctic communities across Eurasia and North America.

Product details

• Authors: J R McNeill, J. R. McNeill
• Assisted by: Bathsheba Demuth (Introduction), Bathsheba Demuth (Foreword)
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Content: Book
• Product form: Paperback / Softback
• Publication date: 21.04.2026
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945)
• EAN: 9781324079347
• ISBN: 978-1-324-07934-7
• Pages: 480
• Dimensions (packing): 14 x 21.1 x 2.8 cm
• Weight (packing): 384 g
• Subjects: Sustainability, Smog, Nature / Environmental Conservation & Protection, 20th Century, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Ecology, HISTORY / World, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, Ecology, ecosystem, General & world history, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Phosphate, oceans, Conservation of the environment, General and world history, Ecological science, the Biosphere, Deforestation, Fossil Fuel, biosphere, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, Soil Degradation, acid rain