Origin Story

I have long been a fan of David Christian. In Origin Story, he elegantly weaves evidence and insights from many scientific and historical disciplines into a single, accessible historical narrative

Bill Gates

A remarkable book that puts us self-important humans in our proper place in the cosmos, yet also explains why the story of human culture and knowledge - what Christian calls collective learning - matters for understanding our present world and shaping its future

Merry Wiesner-Hanks, President of the World History Association

In Origin Story, David Christian has found a spectacular way to use history to put order in the entire set of our knowledge about the world. This is a wonderful achievement

Carlo Rovelli, author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time

Origin Story is a majestic distillation of our current understanding of the birth of the universe, of the solar system, of the oceans, of mountains and minerals, of all life on earth and of the driving dynamics of human culture and achievement. All of this in just over 300 pages of captivating prose that weaves together innumerable insights from the sciences, arts and humanities. With fascinating ideas on every page and the page turning energy of a good thriller, this is a landmark work that comes at a time when it has never been more important for humanity to have a clearer, more informed understanding of our place on earth and of the earth's place in the cosmos. A spellbinding synthesis

Ken Robinson, educator and bestselling author of The Element and You, Your Child and School

Rather like the Big Bang, the book is awe-inspiring. The processes it describes are all familiar, but I'd never seen them explained with such clarity and verve ... Superb

Gerard Degroot, The Times

Christian tells this story very well, providing, in effect, a short course in modern science. This is a brief history of the universe, and an excellent one

Wall Street Journal

If you read one book this year, make it this one

Fareed Zakaria, CNN

[Origin Story is] long-haul science with wit and oomph

Nature

A journey through billions of years that nails home the point: Life is a miracle ... [A] remarkably cogent and compelling history of everything

Washington Post