The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850

Rating:
Summary: A climatology book for the lay audience.
Review: It's only recently that climate has become important to the average person. With global warming and El Nino common subjects, it's hard to realize we've only been aware of the weather for a short time. In this book, Brian Fagan makes us aware that weather has shaped our lives and society for a very long time indeed.

Although perhaps a little too broad in scope, and a little more general than his previous books, Fagan nonetheless presents a clear, well-researched, and immensely readable history of the Little Ice Age and how it shaped our culture from the Middle Ages to the rise of the Industrial Age.

A must have for professional and amateur archaeologists.

Rating:
Summary: Baby, its cold outside.
Review: Major climatic events impact history. Most of the time the impacts are short lived although severe at the time, e.g. the class 4 and 5 hurricanes that batter the U.S. Rare are the events that though short lived, have long term consequences, e.g. the bitter winters that contributed to Napoleon's and Hitler's ill-fated invasions of Russia. Or the storms that sank the Spanish Armada. Rarer still are climatic events that are themselves long-lived and have profound historical repercussions for human societies. Brian Fagan has now produced two books about these latter type of events - an earlier book about the impacts of el Nino, and the present book on the period of intense cold that gripped Europe and much of the rest of the world for about a 500 year period that ended in the middle of the 19th century. Although the writing occasionally appears hasty, or to suffer from rather incomplete editing, this is a story well told. Fagan draws upon extensive historical documents, both formal and informal, to describe the impact of a climate that not only was on average somewhat colder than that of the 20th century, but also highly variable. Indeed, the often rapid and large swings in temperature and rainfall appear to have had a severer effect on human societies than the cold itself. After all, once you know that it is going to be colder or hotter than average - and stay that way - you can take appropriate measures (at least within certain limits). But wide and unpredictable swings in temperature and precipitation can have devastating effects. Fagan is able to convey these effects in a very personal way. Fagan concludes with thoughts on the potential effects of the present global warming.

An excellent book which examines the effects of climate on civilizations but over a much longer period and in a more quantitative fashion than does Fagan is the 2nd edition (1995) of H. H. Lamb's "Climate History and the Modern World".

One need not have taken sides in the "climate debate" that is ongoing to enjoy reading this book and come away with a greater understanding of how human populations react to environmental stress. Although Fagan clearly sides with the growing number of scientists who think that global warming is primarily being forced by anthropogenic causes (e.g. emission of greenhouse gases), in this book he has presented some exciting narrative history on a topic that is often neglected.

Rating:
Summary: Careful with this one!
Review: Mr. Fagan has chosen an interesting topic that gives a fresh perspective on historical issues. Many of his insights are original and quite astute. I think if he had disciplined himself to report the historical facts in a well ordered many, then drew on some of the scientific issues surrounding climate change, he would have produced a fine scholarly and entertaining book.

Such was not the case. Mr. Fagan lacks proficient quantitative skills from which to analyze the data he presents. The readers first forewarning of this comes in the author's notes, when he advises readers that 10 miles is the equivalent of 6 kilometers. Throughout the text he makes reference to advance statistical modeling, giving the impression that such analytical work has the value of de facto evidence. This is not the case. Climate forecasting is among the most complex application of statistical analysis to be conducted in present times, and is highly conflicting and inaccurate. I don't think Mr. Fagan understands this.

He also can't resist inserting his opinions on climate change in areas that should have been left purely to explanations of historical fact. These occational bald assertions are left to dangle, unconnected to the topic at hand, damaging the credibility of the text.

The book does not transition smoothly from topic to topic, and he rarely draws clear conclusions from the information he presents. As a result, I continually found myself confused about where the author was going, and what he was trying to say. For me it was a hard book to get through. From America's leading writer on archaeology --that's what is says on the book jacket-- I would have expected a more well ordered thought process.

Parts of the book were truly interesting, but be forewarned, it wasn't an easy read.

Rating:
Summary: Great subject, great research, disappointing book
Review: Quite possibly, there is a great book trapped inside of this one, but the absence of a cohesive narrative line and an annoying tendency to digress make the end product a frustrating "could have been".

The topic, that of how climactic shifts influenced European history, is fascinating, and the author demonstrates a command of his topic and a well-researched point of view. However, the absence of linear story-telling (be it chronological, national, episodic) or causal relationships (the author avoids overt links between climate and historical events) makes the book read more like a series of weather reports than a well-researched treatise on the role climate played in European development. The book is at its strongest in the rare instances where the author takes a single event (the Irish Potato famine, the French revolution) and details the role of climate over a period of time. The book is at its weakest when it jumps from season to season over a period of years, detailing the weather and its causes, and drops snippets of detail from various parts of Europe. Unfortunately, the latter predominates.

In the end, I found the book frustrating. First, because of the distracting, dizzying, and often digressive narrative style. Second, because the topic has so much meat I wanted more.

Rating:
Summary: Great subject, great research, disappointing book
Review: Quite possibly, there is a great book trapped inside of this one, but the absence of a cohesive narrative line and an annoying tendency to digress make the end product a frustrating "could have been".

The topic, that of how climactic shifts influenced European history, is fascinating, and the author demonstrates a command of his topic and a well-researched point of view. However, the absence of linear story-telling (be it chronological, national, episodic) or causal relationships (the author avoids overt links between climate and historical events) makes the book read more like a series of weather reports than a well-researched treatise on the role climate played in European development. The book is at its strongest in the rare instances where the author takes a single event (the Irish Potato famine, the French revolution) and details the role of climate over a period of time. The book is at its weakest when it jumps from season to season over a period of years, detailing the weather and its causes, and drops snippets of detail from various parts of Europe. Unfortunately, the latter predominates.

In the end, I found the book frustrating. First, because of the distracting, dizzying, and often digressive narrative style. Second, because the topic has so much meat I wanted more.

Rating:
Summary: Pertinent even to our own times.
Review: Since I had found Brian Fagan's book Floods, Famines and Emperors very thought provoking, I decided to read his more recent book The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850. I was not disappointed.

Professor Fagan carries on a tradition (which he freely admits was discredited in the past but is now enjoying a renaissance because of newer information) of viewing history through the eyes of a paleoclimatologist. Much of what he had said in the earlier text, namely that many of mankind's major social and cultural transitions have been climate and weather driven, made a good deal of sense to me. Episodes such as the Sea People's invasion of the ancient Levant with the ultimate collapse of the Hittite empire and the reduction of the Egyptian during the late second millennium B.C.E. have long been thought to have been the result of droughts experienced in northern Europe. Similarly the demise of the Moche in Peru, of the Mayan civilizations in Middle America, and of the pueblo cultures in the Southwestern US are believed to have been the result of el Nino/la Nina weather changes, massive rains in the case of the Moche and severe drought in the latter two cases. Although no one would say that any of these historic human changes occurred purely in response to climate, it is abundantly apparent that the economic impact of especially prolonged climate changes on large subsistence level populations tend to leave the more inflexible social systems at great risk.

The earlier book described the probable role of el Nino/ la Nina cycles on world climate, while more briefly discussing the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and it's effects. It was also concerned with much earlier cultures. The current book discusses the North Atlantic Oscillation in much greater detail and outlines it's specific effects on the climate and social environment of Europe and North America during more recent times. The material is dealt with in a very clear manner and was not difficult to understand even with my average person's more casual understanding of weather and climate.

Because the history is of events in more recent time, especially in the last half of the book, the narrative clearly has greater implications for the modern reader than the earlier book does. The Irish potato famine, for instance, was an event of great social significance whose impact on the modern politics in the United Kingdom and on the population demographics of the United States and Australia continues to this day. Certainly pertinent is the lesson of the political upheavals suffered by European governments in the 18th and 19th centuries. Those that ignored the precariousness of the lives experienced by the bulk of their population, choosing to do little or nothing to alleviate their suffering during famines, did so at their own peril. Those that refused to improve their management of their agricultural and natural environment also suffered more acutely. Even now as over half of the world's population suffers from hunger, poor sanitation, little or no health care, and a growing sense of hopelessness, the governments and people of the developed world face similar challenges and choices. Dealing with the inequities and injustices has now grown from a national to a global scale, but ignoring them could easily have the same consequences as it did for the upper and lower classes of the nascent nations. Similarly, the degeneration of the environment through overpopulation and mismanagement is looming large on our international horizon and can not be ignored for much longer.

My only complaint is that the last half of the book is riddled with dates to the point of distraction. I realize that accuracy is much to be appreciated when it comes to historic events, but in this case "before" and "after," "earlier" or "later" might have been perfectly adequate. I found that as long as I was aware of the general character of the times, its historic personalities and events, I could ignore the dates without being too misled as to time frame. I am aware that individuals like Eric the Red and Lief Erickson were not contemporary with Louis the XVI or Napoleon but that Thomas Jefferson was, etc. Someone less familiar with the events of history might find the dates more helpful.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone interested in climatology, paleoclimatology, social change, and early modern history. For those with an interest in earlier cultures, I'd suggest Fagin's previous book Floods, Famines and Emperors

Rating:
Summary: A Different Historical Perspective
Review: The Little Ice Age is an examination of the effects of the five hundred year long period from 1300 to 1800, when Europe suffered through a period of intense and unstable weather. Fagan does not blame every historical incident on the NAO, or North Atlantic Oscillation, but does make a good case that fluctuations in the NAO have intensified the effects of such disparate incidents as the Black Death epidemic, the Irish potato famine, the Great Fire of London, and many other events. Fagan also does a good job of pointing out that we are presently living in an apparent warm spell, intensified by the greenhouse effect, and helps us recognize the potential for sudden, perhaps catastrophic change in our weather systems. I'm amazed by the amount of research Fagan did in tracking the rise and fall of glaciers and the paths of five hundred year old storms. A great read which will help you recognize the delicate balance of our global weather systems.

Rating:
Summary: A Different Historical Perspective
Review: The Little Ice Age is an examination of the effects of the five hundred year long period from 1300 to 1800, when Europe suffered through a period of intense and unstable weather. Fagan does not blame every historical incident on the NAO, or North Atlantic Oscillation, but does make a good case that fluctuations in the NAO have intensified the effects of such disparate incidents as the Black Death epidemic, the Irish potato famine, the Great Fire of London, and many other events. Fagan also does a good job of pointing out that we are presently living in an apparent warm spell, intensified by the greenhouse effect, and helps us recognize the potential for sudden, perhaps catastrophic change in our weather systems. I'm amazed by the amount of research Fagan did in tracking the rise and fall of glaciers and the paths of five hundred year old storms. A great read which will help you recognize the delicate balance of our global weather systems.

Rating:
Summary: Learning from the Past
Review: The most intriguing thing about this book was the theme of how nature is always a part of human life. Sometimes, we enjoy prosperity because of certain conditions, sometimes we face famine. At the core is the idea that humans can be made more vulnerable to political and social change by the climate...or more vulnerable to climate change by the politics/social aspects of the time.

In the last chapter, Fagan relates the historical aspects of the book to current conditions. We are now warmer than in the Medieval Warm Period and temperatures are still climbing and climbing at a tremendous rate. In a course I took on Paleoecology, I learned that it is possible to take natural warming out of the picture and still see an alarming trend. I liked the fact that Fagan discussed the possible advantages of warming as well as its possible disadvantages. Of course, to Europe and North America, disaster would not be as great (for a while at least). However, so many people in this world are still vulnerable to climate change. And, I think the author is saying we in Europe and NA are deluding ourselves to think that we would remain unaffected. It is interesting to contemplate.

Generally, this book is intriguing because it links climate data with historical events to give us a much fuller and richer view of the past. It also makes us think about the present and the future. It is well worth the read.

Rating:
Summary: Really GREAT environmental history book
Review: The only week part of the book is the last chapter which makes the ususal liberal environmental statement... regardless, the book is a 5 star book and should stand on the merits of all but the last chapter.