In Suspect Terrain

From the outwash plains of Brooklyn to Indiana's drifted diamonds and gold 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.

• Author
• John McPhee

• Format
• paperback

• Pages
• 224

• Series
• Annals of the Former World

• Publisher
• Farrar, Straus and Giroux

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 978-0-374-51794-6

• EAN
• 9780374517946

• Genres
• science, geology, nature, history, geography, travel, essays, biography

• Release date
• 1984