Geoffrey Parker
Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides â€“ the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were not only unprecedented, they were agonisingly widespread.Â  A global crisis extended from England to Japan, and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa. North and South America, too, suffered turbulence. The distinguished historian Geoffrey Parker examines first-hand accounts of men and women throughout the world describing what they saw and suffered during a sequence of political, economic and social crises that stretched from 1618 to the 1680s. Parker also deploys scientific evidence concerning climate conditions of the period, and his use of â€˜naturalâ€™ as well as â€˜humanâ€™ archives transforms our understanding of the World Crisis. Changes in the prevailing weather patterns during the 1640s and 1650s â€“ longer and harsher winters, and cooler and wetter summers â€“ disrupted growing seasons, causing dearth, malnutrition, and disease, along with more deaths and fewer births. Some contemporaries estimated that one-third of the world died, and much of the surviving historical evidence supports their pessimism.,Parkerâ€™s demonstration of the link between climate change and worldwide catastrophe 350 years ago stands as an extraordinary historical achievement.Â  And the contemporary implications of his study are equally important: are we at all prepared today for the catastrophes that climate change could bring tomorrow?
History,Nonfiction,History,World History,Literature,17th Century,Science,War,Environment,Climate Change,War,Military Fiction,Environment,History,European History
Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century