A Short History of Nearly Everything - by Bill Bryson

About the Book

One of the world's finest and funniest writers goes on a quest to discover the mysteries of the universe--and comprehend the fascinating, eccentric people who devote their lives to unraveling those big questions.

Book Synopsis

THE #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER, UPDATED FOR 2025 - A wonder-filled quest to understand everything that has happened in the history of the Earth, from the Big Bang theory to the rise of civilization and beyond--revised to reflect the last two decades of scientific advancement

"Brims with strange and amazing facts . . . destined to become a modern classic of science writing."--The New York Times

How did we get from being nothing at all to where we are today? How did the age of the dinosaurs eventually give way to the age of the iPhone? In this completely revised update to the international phenomenon A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson returns to answer these questions and many more.

Bryson brings a groundbreaking account of life itself to a new generation of readers, as he takes subjects often passed off as boring and incomprehensible and renders them accessible, fascinating, and outright amusing to anyone who's ever wondered about the world around them. Introducing readers to a diverse cast of the world's most impressive archaeologists, paleontologists, physicists, astronomers, anthropologists, and mathematicians--from their offices and laboratories to dig sites and field camps--Bryson embarks on a journey to discover answers to the biggest questions about the universe and ourselves.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is a profoundly enlightening, surprisingly humorous, and charmingly clever adventure into the realm of human knowledge, as only Bryson can render it. His revamped Short History is a thrilling journey through time and space, and his writing will make readers both new and old see the world in a whole new way.

Review Quotes

"Stylish [and] stunningly accurate prose. We learn what the material world is like from the smallest quark to the largest galaxy and at all the levels in between . . . brims with strange and amazing facts . . . destined to become a modern classic of science writing."--The New York Times

"Bryson has made a career writing hilarious travelogues, and in many ways his latest is more of the same, except that this time Bryson hikes through the world of science."--People

"Bryson is surprisingly precise, brilliantly eccentric and nicely eloquent . . . a gifted storyteller has dared to retell the world's biggest story."--Seattle Times

"Hefty, highly researched and eminently readable."--Simon Winchester, The Globe and Mail

"All non-scientists (and probably many specialized scientists, too) can learn a great deal from his lucid and amiable explanations."--National Post

"Bryson is a terrific stylist. You can' t help but enjoy his writing, for its cheer and buoyancy, and for the frequent demonstration of his peculiar, engaging turn of mind."--Ottawa Citizen

"Wonderfully readable. It is, in the best sense, learned."--Winnipeg Free Press

About the Author

Bill Bryson's bestselling books include The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, One Summer, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, In a Sunburned Country, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His acclaimed work of popular science A Short History of Nearly Everything won the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize and is the bestselling nonfiction book of the twenty-first century. Bill Bryson was a chancellor of Durham University, is an honorary fellow of the Royal Society, and lives in England.