Annals of the Former WorldThe Pulitzer Prize winning view of the continent, across the fortieth parallel and down through 4. 6 billion years Twenty years ago, when John McPhee began his journeys back and forth across the United States, he planned to describe a cross section of North America at about the fortieth parallel and, in the process, come to an understanding not only of the science but of the style of the geologists he travelled with. The structure of the book never