The Map that Changed the World

Winchester's book narrates the intellectual context of the time, the development of Smith's ideas and how they contributed to the theory of evolution and more generally to a dawning realisation of the true age of the Earth.

It includes an extensive index, glossary of geological terms, recommended reading and (lengthy) acknowledgements, as well as many stippled images (of consistent style).

One: Escape on the Northbound Stage Two: A Land Awakening from Sleep Three: The Mystery of the Chedworth Bun Four: The Duke and the Baronet's Widow Five: A Light in the Underworld Six: The Slicing of Somerset Seven: The View from York Minster Eight: Notes from the Swan Nine: The Dictator in the Drawing Room Ten: The Great Map Conceived Eleven: A Jurassic Interlude Twelve: The Map That Changed the World Thirteen: An Ungentlemanly Act Fourteen: The Sale of the Century Fifteen: The Wrath of Leviathan Sixteen: The Lost and Found Man Seventeen: All Honor to the Doctor.

Smith is described physically, as heavy-set balding and plain-looking, and emotionally as quitting London in disgust.

But, in the year 1769, as Smith was born, James Watt was patenting a steam engine, cloth manufacture was improving, the postal service was viable.

Archbishop Ussher's 4004 BC date for the Creation of the Earth, along with similar estimates by Isaac Newton and other academics of the 17th century, was merely a historical footnote in academia by Smith's lifetime.

[1] Smith was in no way challenging the church or risking jail – American paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould refuted such claims in his review of The Map That Changed the World.

Martin Rudwick's Earth's Deep History: How It Was Discovered and Why It Matters is perhaps the most accessible account of the development of geology in this time interval.