Dirt
The Erosion of Civilizations
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Narrated by:
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Tim Lundeen
About this listen
Dirt, soil, call it what you want, it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting audiobook finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are, and have long been, using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations.
A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.
Produced and published by Echo Point Books & Media, an independent bookseller in Brattleboro, Vermont.
©2012 David R. Montgomery (P)2024 Echo Point Books & Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
David R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle take us far beyond the well-worn adage to deliver a new truth: the roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. Navigating discoveries and epiphanies about the world beneath our feet, they reveal why regenerative farming practices hold the key to healing sick soil and untapped potential for improving human health.
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I might have to read rather than listening
- By Kindle Customer on 09-08-22
By: David R. Montgomery, and others
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Growing a Revolution
- Bringing Our Soil Back to Life
- By: David R. Montgomery
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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The problem of agriculture is as old as civilization. Throughout history, great societies that abused their land withered into poverty or disappeared entirely. Now we risk repeating this ancient story on a global scale due to ongoing soil degradation, a changing climate, and a rising population. But there is reason for hope. David R. Montgomery introduces us to farmers around the world at the heart of a brewing soil health revolution that could bring humanity's ailing soil back to life remarkably fast.
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Disappointing
- By option31AW on 11-22-18
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The Rocks Don't Lie
- By: David R. Montgomery
- Narrated by: Gary Telles
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In Tibet, geologist David R. Montgomery heard a local story about a great flood that bore a striking similarity to Noah’s Flood. Intrigued, Montgomery began investigating theworld’s flood stories and - drawing from historic works by theologians, natural philosophers, and scientists - discovered the counterintuitive role Noah’s Flood played in the development of both geology and creationism.
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Very Educational
- By Male Perspective on 12-01-13
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Dirt
- A Social History as Seen Through the Uses and Abuses of Dirt
- By: Terence McLaughlin
- Narrated by: Todd Belcher
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Delve into the fascinating world of dirt in this history of culture, cleanliness, and our evolving perceptions of what is and isn’t gross. In this engaging and often humorous study of life’s imperfections, public health and hygiene authority Terence McLaughlin dissects our attitudes toward the filth that has accompanied society throughout human history. According to him, “dirt” is a matter of opinion.
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Teaming with Microbes
- The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
- By: Jeff Lowenfels, Wayne Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris Lutkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life - not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms.
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Poor delivery
- By Brian C. on 06-05-20
By: Jeff Lowenfels, and others
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The Hidden Half of Nature
- The Microbial Roots of Life and Health
- By: David R. Montgomery, Anne Bikle
- Narrated by: LJ Ganser
- Length: 10 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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A riveting exploration of how microbes are transforming the way we see nature and ourselves - and could revolutionize agriculture and medicine. Prepare to set aside what you think you know about yourself and microbes. Good health - for people and for plants - depends on Earth's smallest creatures. The Hidden Half of Nature tells the story of our tangled relationship with microbes and their potential to revolutionize agriculture and medicine, from garden to gut.
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A perfect introduction to microbiology
- By Ary Shalizi on 02-17-17
By: David R. Montgomery, and others
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What Your Food Ate
- How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health
- By: David R. Montgomery, Anne Biklé
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
David R. Montgomery and Anne Bikle take us far beyond the well-worn adage to deliver a new truth: the roots of good health start on farms. What Your Food Ate marshals evidence from recent and forgotten science to illustrate how the health of the soil ripples through to that of crops, livestock, and ultimately us. Navigating discoveries and epiphanies about the world beneath our feet, they reveal why regenerative farming practices hold the key to healing sick soil and untapped potential for improving human health.
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I might have to read rather than listening
- By Kindle Customer on 09-08-22
By: David R. Montgomery, and others
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Growing a Revolution
- Bringing Our Soil Back to Life
- By: David R. Montgomery
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The problem of agriculture is as old as civilization. Throughout history, great societies that abused their land withered into poverty or disappeared entirely. Now we risk repeating this ancient story on a global scale due to ongoing soil degradation, a changing climate, and a rising population. But there is reason for hope. David R. Montgomery introduces us to farmers around the world at the heart of a brewing soil health revolution that could bring humanity's ailing soil back to life remarkably fast.
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Disappointing
- By option31AW on 11-22-18
-
The Rocks Don't Lie
- By: David R. Montgomery
- Narrated by: Gary Telles
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Tibet, geologist David R. Montgomery heard a local story about a great flood that bore a striking similarity to Noah’s Flood. Intrigued, Montgomery began investigating theworld’s flood stories and - drawing from historic works by theologians, natural philosophers, and scientists - discovered the counterintuitive role Noah’s Flood played in the development of both geology and creationism.
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Very Educational
- By Male Perspective on 12-01-13
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Dirt
- A Social History as Seen Through the Uses and Abuses of Dirt
- By: Terence McLaughlin
- Narrated by: Todd Belcher
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Delve into the fascinating world of dirt in this history of culture, cleanliness, and our evolving perceptions of what is and isn’t gross. In this engaging and often humorous study of life’s imperfections, public health and hygiene authority Terence McLaughlin dissects our attitudes toward the filth that has accompanied society throughout human history. According to him, “dirt” is a matter of opinion.
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Teaming with Microbes
- The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
- By: Jeff Lowenfels, Wayne Lewis
- Narrated by: Chris Lutkin
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When we use chemical fertilizers, we injure the microbial life that sustains plants and then become increasingly dependent on an arsenal of toxic substances. Teaming with Microbes offers an alternative to this vicious circle and details how to garden in a way that strengthens, rather than destroys, the soil food web. You’ll discover that healthy soil is teeming with life - not just earthworms and insects, but a staggering multitude of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms.
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Poor delivery
- By Brian C. on 06-05-20
By: Jeff Lowenfels, and others
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Defending Beef
- The Case for Sustainable Meat Production
- By: Nicolette Hahn Niman
- Narrated by: Nicolette Hahn Niman
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
For decades, it has been nearly universal dogma among environmentalists and health advocates that cattle and beef are public enemy number one. But is the matter really so clear? Hardly, argues environmental lawyer turned rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman in her new book, Defending Beef. The public has long been led to believe that livestock, especially cattle, erode soils, pollute air and water, damage riparian areas, and decimate wildlife populations. In Defending Beef, Hahn Niman argues that cattle are not inherently bad for either the Earth or our own nutritional health.
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Good Facts
- By DeeperSeeker on 04-25-19
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For the Love of Soil
- Strategies to Regenerate Our Food Production Systems
- By: Nicole Masters
- Narrated by: Nicole Masters
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Learn a road map to healthy soil and revitalized food systems for powerfully addressing these times of challenge. This audiobook equips producers with knowledge, skills, and insights to regenerate ecosystem health and grow farm/ranch profits. Globally recognized soil advocate and agroecologist Nicole Masters delivers the solution to rewind the clock on this increasingly critical soil crisis in her first book For the Love of Soil. She argues we can no longer treat soil like dirt.
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More Narrative Than Prescriptive
- By Real David Art on 08-13-20
By: Nicole Masters
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Dirt to Soil
- One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture
- By: Gabe Brown
- Narrated by: Gabe Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dirt to Soil, Gabe Brown tells the story of his ranch's amazing journey and offers a wealth of innovative solutions to our most pressing and complex contemporary agricultural challenge - restoring the soil. The Brown’s Ranch model, developed over 20 years of experimentation and refinement, focuses on regenerating resources by continuously enhancing the living biology in the soil.
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loved it.
- By Amazon Customer on 01-29-19
By: Gabe Brown
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Soil Science for Gardeners
- Working with Nature to Build Soil Health (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)
- By: Robert Pavlis
- Narrated by: David Skulski
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Robert Pavlis, a gardener for over four decades, debunks common soil myths, explores the rhizosphere, and provides a personalized soil fertility improvement program in this three-part popular science guidebook. Soil Science for Gardeners is an accessible, science-based guide to understanding soil fertility and, in particular, the rhizosphere - the thin layer of liquid and soil surrounding plant roots, so vital to plant health.
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Poorly sourced personal opinion
- By R H on 11-26-22
By: Robert Pavlis
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Soil Science for Regenerative Agriculture
- A Comprehensive Guide to Living Soil, No-till Gardening, Composting and Natural Farming - Complete with a Step-by-Step Action Plan to Quickly Grow Soil
- By: Amélie des Plantes
- Narrated by: Al Pagano
- Length: 4 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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According to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), each year, an estimated 24 billion tons of fertile soil are lost due to erosion. That’s a whopping 3.4 tons lost every year for each person on the planet.
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Lack of Supporting References
- By Jeffrey G. Boldt on 12-22-24
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Weathering
- By: Ruth Allen
- Narrated by: Ruth Allen
- Length: 8 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Rocks and mountains have withstood aeons of life on our planet - gradually eroding, dissolving, recycling, shifting, solidifying, and weathering. We might spend a little less time on earth, but humans are also weathering: evolving and changing as we're transformed by the shifting climates of our lives and experiences. So, what might these ancient natural forms have to teach us about resilience and change?
By: Ruth Allen
What listeners say about Dirt
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- Emeline
- 10-05-18
Will forever change the way I farm.
Here is not only a history of civilizations’ soils, but also a manual for how to feed the earth’s present and future. Just the right blend of science, history, humor, and practical down-to-earth (as it were) advice for how to garden on your farm/garden/urban flower pot in a way that respects the tiny sliver of usable dirt that supports all our lives and dreams.
The narration is measured, articulate, and well paced to absorbing concepts which might be new and sometimes confusing to non-scientists.
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2 people found this helpful
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- ZebraBear
- 06-01-22
Revelatory
A couple of years ago, I started to understand what I think I first heard Derrick Jensen say in an interview a long time ago. Something about how to live sustainably, or in balance or reciprocity with the environment, we have to start with the land.
I think I first started to figure out what this meant after reading Dick Manning's Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics, And Promise Of The American Prairie, Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization and James Scott's book, Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States.
The most profound realization I got from these books is that human beings can't eat grass, but, unfortunately, grass is pretty much all that grows naturally in the arid plains of the Midwest and the rest of the bread baskets of the world. Industrial agriculture is only able to squeeze corn, wheat, and soybeans out of these lands because farmers pour huge amounts of fossil fuel based pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers on these cash crops. Also, irrigation. And, government subsidies. This makes ridiculous, at least in my mind, any claim that vegan, and even just all-plant based diets, are a viable long-term solution to food shortages around the planet given the current global population. There's nothing vegan about industrial monocrop dead-zone agriculture.
Anyway, this book is an amazing companion to the aforementioned Manning titles and really drives home the Jensen point about everything starts with the land, i.e. the soil.
I learned so much from this book, but perhaps the most remarkable piece came in Montgomery's analysis of the American Civil War in which he argues that erosion of southern plantation soils, and thus their drop in productivity, was a contributing factor that lead to the war. This was mind blowing to me.
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- Christopher D
- 05-14-21
A must read history of agriculture
This book should be in every history class around the world. This book is so much more than just a book about dirt. It is a book about how poorly regulated civilizations destroy themselves.
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- marni giovanna
- 04-29-23
Required reading
Follow the money? No! Follow the soil! Required reading for all historians, regulators, investors, politicians. Another example of how short term thinking, profit making and theocracies lead to decline of civilizations and war. Hurray for the organic farmers, the soil scientists, the lovers of nature and everyone striving for a smaller footprint of man.
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- BossBaker
- 04-26-22
Crucial Information
This book delivers some of if not the most important information of our time. History is important. And If we can’t learn from our ecological mistakes as a society, then we face a long hard road ahead.
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- Damon
- 12-02-22
Good history book
I enjoyed the review of the Science mixed in with the history. I will be reading his other books now.
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- Ian K O'Malley
- 07-27-22
Disturbing
In depth review of past failures per top soil and those looming. The author provides a grim outlook but one that can be redeemed.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Elan Sun Star
- 01-21-19
Possibly the best book I have ever read
This book is amazing I only read non fiction and only that which increases happiness and ecological awareness and health and consciousness. This foundation of soil and civilizations is amazing I hope now that the hundreds of other books in this category will make it to Audible....soil is our saviour.
Dr Montgomery is the quintessential research genius with detailed references and facts...zI holpe to get this into the hands of screenplay writers and organizations alike as well as grant writers to keep this ball rolling ,...the dissemination of data to prove the critical importance of developing soil science. Bravo Dr Montgomery. Elan Star
Kailua Hawaiin96734
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- Rob
- 02-05-19
Slow to start but...
As a fan of civilations and history the connection to soil was an enlightning link. The book was a bit repeatative in the beginning but I listened thru to get to the good stuff.
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- Anders H.
- 01-25-20
A must read to understand the life cycle of civilizations and how to preserve our society
Might be a bit long, and when the tenth civilization dies you sort of know the mechanisms already. Thank god he had found some good but very harsh examples of the opposite.
That said. Everything you learnt in school about the death of the Roman Empire, the Greeks and even today’s USA is not about what you have been taught.
It’s a must read if you think the current climate crisis is a problem. It’s actually much worse and history keeps repeating. With or without global warming.
Read it, I got a very new perspective on these things.
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