The Little Ice Age

How Climate Made History 1300-1850

By: Brian Fagan

Narrated by: Michael Langan

The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.

Only in the last decade have climatologists developed an accurate picture of yearly climate conditions in historical times. This development confirmed a long-standing suspicion: that the world endured a 500-year cold snap, a little ice age, that lasted roughly from AD 1300 until 1850.

With its basis in cutting-edge science, The Little Ice Age offers a new perspective on familiar events. Renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan shows how the increasing cold affected Norse exploration; how changing sea temperatures caused English and Basque fishermen to follow vast shoals of cod all the way to the New World; how a generations-long subsistence crisis in France contributed to social disintegration and ultimately revolution; and how English efforts to improve farm productivity in the face of a deteriorating climate helped pave the way for the Industrial Revolution and hence for global warming.

This is a fascinating, original book for anyone interested in history, climate, or the new subject of how they interact.

©2020 Brian Fagan (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

mindblowing!

This book is like getting the secret backstage pass to the last 1000 years of history!! I loved finding out so many underlying influences and reasons behind how the human story has unfolded! This book made my school history classes look like a bunch of jumbled no-context newspaper headlines without their associated stories. Thanks!!!

A real eye-opener

listening to this really put perspective on how big and also how small the world is and how easily it is for us humans to perish. I highly recommend listening to this book.

Great history, could use an update.

This is a great collection of stories and histories from this period. Nice work on connecting influences to events throughout the period.

Only lagging parts are where the author tries to connect to modern times and contexts. In some cases these comparison land soft just because of the dates but other times they miss because the science has changed in the passing time.

Overall, worth the read but there are some missing pieces where the information is outdated.

Perfect audio experience!

I loved the choice of Michael Langan as narrator. His steady voice was a perfect compliment to the content. (Insert Applause Here) Climate change is a politically and emotionally charged subject, but Brian Fagan presented the subject fairly and factually with many interesting examples that are little heard among the shrill biases of the masses. Do yourself a favor….put everything in your life aside and listen to this book. Enjoy!!!

Good, hard to follow

It was an interesting book, but I couldn't get myself to get hooked on it. I found myself frequently having to go back to relisten what was going on. Maybe if it was a series, or longer, so it could go into the different topics more l'd have had a better understanding of it. I might give it a shot again some day in a physical copy as that may help with processing it more. I do recommend it as it has a lot of information and research in it!