The Earth has entered a new epoch the Anthropocene What we are facing is not only an environmental crisis but a geological revolution of human origin In two centuries our planet has tipped into a state unknown for millions of years How did we get to this point? Refuting the convenient view of a "human species" that upset the Earth system unaware of what it was doing this book proposes the first critical history of the Anthropocene shaking up many accepted ideas about our supposedly recent "environmental awareness" about previous challenges to industrialism about the manufacture of ignorance & consumerism about so-called energy transitions as well as about the role of the military in environmental destruction In a dialogue between science & history The Shock of the Anthropocene dissects a new theoretical buzzword & explores paths for living & acting politically in this rapidly developing geological epoch