The Eternal Frontier leads the reader on a 65-million-year quest to understand the formation of North America. From the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period to the present day, Flannery explores America's history with keen insight and an extraordinary breadth of knowledge. Ultimately, human beings had to face the environmental vicissitudes of the continent, and Flannery's exploration of the ways in which we have coped makes for fascinating reading.