A Crack in the Edge of the World
by Simon Winchester | 
The Professor and the Madman
by Simon Winchester | 
The Meaning of Everything
by Simon Winchester | 
The Man Who Loved China
by Simon Winchester | 
The Men Who United the States
by Simon Winchester | 
The Man of Numbers
by Keith Devlin | 
The Alice Behind Wonderland
by Simon Winchester | 
The Lunar Men
by Jenny Uglow | 
Longitude
by Dava Sobel |
The World of Gerard Mercator
by Andrew Taylor | 
Newton and the Counterfeiter
by Thomas Levenson | 
The Age of Wonder
by Richard Holmes | 
The Clockwork Universe
by Edward Dolnick | 
Atlantic
by Simon Winchester | 
Pacific
by Simon Winchester | 
Galileo's Daughter
by Dava Sobel |
Rocket Men
by Robert Kurson | 
Skunk Works
by Ben R. Rich | 
The Invention of Nature
by Andrea Wulf | 
Apollo 8
by Jeffrey Kluger |
In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell'??clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world'??making it possible, for the first time ever, to draw a chart of the hidden underside of the earth. Smith spent twenty-two years piecing together the fragments of this unseen universe to create an epochal and remarkably beautiful hand-painted map. But instead of receiving accolades and honors, he ended up in debtors' prison, the victim of plagiarism, and virtually homeless for ten years more. The Map That Changed the World is a very human tale of endurance and achievement, of one man's dedication in the face of ruin. With a keen eye and thoughtful detail, Simon Winchester unfolds the poignant sacrifice behind this world-changing discovery.