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Climate Change and the Course of Global History

A Rough Journey

John L Brooke author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:17th Mar '14

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Climate Change and the Course of Global History cover

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of how climate change has influenced global history, integrating scientific insights with human development. Climate Change and the Course of Global History is a vital resource for understanding these connections.

In Climate Change and the Course of Global History, the author presents a groundbreaking global study that merges the insights of modern climate science with the material history of humanity. This unique approach begins with an examination of how environmental changes have influenced both biological and human evolution. By utilizing three decades of climate research, the book offers a fresh perspective on the interconnectedness of climate and human history.

The narrative is divided into four parts, each addressing different aspects of the relationship between climate and human development. The first section discusses the geological and climatic factors that have shaped the evolutionary timeline of both humans and other species. The second part delves into the environmental conditions that facilitated the advent of agriculture and the establishment of states in the Early and Mid-Holocene, while also analyzing human health from the Paleolithic era onward.

Subsequent sections tackle the complexities of economic growth and the human experience during the Late Holocene, spanning from the Bronze Age to the Black Death. The final part emphasizes the transition to modernity, highlighting how human economic and energy systems have become significant players in the Anthropocene epoch. Climate Change and the Course of Global History not only enriches our understanding of historical processes but also provides a vital framework for historians interested in environmental and scientific contexts.

'Think of this as travel writing of the highest order. A rough journey for mankind becomes a stimulating armchair adventure for the reader. This is big history, framed by big ideas but anchored in the very recent explosion of knowledge about climate through the ages and about our history and prehistory. Brooke skillfully navigates the interpretive hazards of proxy paleoclimate data. In Brooke's persuasive account, our evolution to modernity is not absolutely determined by climate and disease, but it has been substantially influenced by them. Our new knowledge shows that quite often these influences abruptly change course, and Brooke shows that much of our history is a consequence of societies scrambling to adjust.' Mark A. Cane, G. Unger Vetlesen Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University
'John Brooke skillfully joins a vast scientific literature to the historiography of virtually every major region to argue that climatic shifts always have been the primary agency determining the pace and direction of human development. He thus offers an unprecedentedly coordinated global chronology as well as a nuanced, distinctly original understanding of the relation between endogenous and exogenous forces. A jaw-dropping tour de force.' Victor Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan
'Readers with advanced degrees in meteorology, archaeology, economics and world environmental history will easily comprehend Brooke's magisterial survey-synthesis. For others, it poses an interesting challenge. The author's mastery and referencing of the vast technical literature in different disciplines is remarkable. … The author also explains seven phases of climate history since 3000 BCE and three industrial revolutions. The consequence is a fundamental change from a lightly populated world controlled by nature to a heavily populated world controlled by both nature and human agency. Summing up: highly recommended.' F. N. Egerton, Choice
'… a wide-ranging work starting with our pre-human and early human ancestor and ending with a consideration of future trajectories … One of the reviews on the back cover has called it 'a jaw-dropping tour de force'; spanning, as it does, millennia and continents, it is hard to argue with that conclusion.' Carleton Jones, The Journal of Irish Archaeology

ISBN: 9780521871648

Dimensions: 234mm x 156mm x 40mm

Weight: 990g

654 pages