Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-248) and index.

Ice, ice ages, and our planet's climate history -- Fire, water, and God -- Glaciers and fossil fish -- The evidence -- Searching for the cause of ice ages -- Defrosting earth -- The ice age cycles -- Our planet's icy past -- Coring for the details -- Ice ages, climate, and evolution -- The last millennium -- Ice ages and the future. "In this book, Doug Macdougall explores the causes and effects of ice ages that have gripped our planet throughout its history, from the earliest known glaciation - nearly three billion years ago - to the present. Following the development of scientific ideas about these dramatic events. Macdougall traces the lives of many of the characters who have contributed to the evolving understanding of how ice ages come about. As it explains how the great Pleistocene Ice Age has shaped the Earth's landscape and influenced the course of human evolution, Frozen Earth provides a look at how science is done, how the excitement of discovery drives scientists to explore and investigate, and how timing and chance play a part in the acceptance of new scientific ideas."--Jacket.