"In Basin and Range, McPhee is not so much a visiting amateur as a rhapsodist of "deep time" . . . The result is a fascinating book." –Paul Zweig, The New York Times Book Review
"One result of the trip west is an introduction to plate tectonics–probably the most readable summary extant. Geologists will find it sound, others will find it understandable and illuminating." –
Geotimes "He triumphs by succinct prose, by his uncanny ability to capture the essence of a complex issue, or an arcane trade secret, in a well-turned phrase." –
Stephen J. Gould, New York Review of Books "An exciting account of geology and the geologist, providing both an excellent history and an up-to-date snapshot of our science in the 1980s." –
Howard R. Gould President, the Geological Society of America "McPhee has taken on something that all of us–especially the American Geological Institute and its news magazine Geotimes–should take on: the explanation to non-geologists of what geology is all about." –
Wendell Cochran, Geotimes "The best popular portrayal of geology that I have seen in my thirty-two years of experience as a professional geologist." –
H. A. Kuehnert, Director, Worldwide Exploration, Phillips Petroleum Company
