The first chapter of the book provides some essential historical background to the modern story of sequence stratigraphy. The history of the study of stratigraphy includes two parallel but largely independent strands of research that have been underway since at least the early twentieth century. They are characterized by some profound differences in underlying principles, references and research methods, one research method being essentially empirical and inductive in approach, while another groups of researchers has attempted to develop deductive, theoretical models for understanding Earth history. Chapter 1 is based largely on four papers which explored this history (Miall and Miall, 2001, 2002, 2004; Miall, 2004). It is to be hoped that readers will not skip this chapter, because experience suggests that students of geology do not learn enough about the history, philosophy, or methodology of their science.<...>
