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

For all that he takes a broad--a very broad--view of European history, Fagan's writing is laced with human faces, fascinating anecdotes, and a gift for the telling detail that makes history live, very much in the style of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. When Fagan talks about the voyages of Basque fishermen to American shores (probably landing before Columbus sailed), he puts in the taste of dried cod and the terrifying suddenness of fogs on the Grand Banks. The Great Fire of London, what it was like when the Dutch dikes broke, the Irish Potato Famine, the year without a summer, ice fairs on the Thames, and volcanoes in the South Pacific--Fagan makes history a ripping yarn in which we are all actors, on a stage that has always been changing. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Product Description
"[The Little Ice Age] could do for the historical study of climate what Michel Foucault's classic Madness and Civilization did for the historical study of mental illness: make it a respectable subject for scholarly inquiry." --Scientific American.

The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how this altered climate affected historical events, and what it means for today's global warming. Building on research that has only recently confirmed that the world endured a 500year cold snap, renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan shows how the increasing cold influenced familiar events from Norse exploration to the settlement of North America to the Industrial Revolution. This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in history, climate, and how they interact.

There are plenty strange events described in Fagan's book, things like glaciers which no longer threaten us. It is best, however, at giving a broad view of the Little Ice Age and how it affected history. Fagan does not make the mistake of "climatic determinism," carefully showing how human behavior, economics, as well as climate produced historic changes, but his links to the weather is convincing because he accepts weather as only a partial explanation. His explanations, for instance, of weather's involvement in the Viking retreat, the French Revolution, and the Irish Potato Famine are excellent.

Fagan's book makes clear that climate has affected civilization, and that humans have not always handled its changes well. His book is not a polemic about the current warming, but he acknowledges that the carbon dioxide levels and coal burning may have been among the mechanisms that produced it. Since we understand such changes only imperfectly, and since they are best shown in computer models upon which corporations can cast doubt, a surprising number of people think that global warming is not a real phenomenon. Fagan shows that the warming is real, and that our weather these days is greatly different from the Ice Age before. More importantly, he shows that people responded to the changes of the past in often lamentable ways; if ever learning from history was vital to prevent repeating it, we would do well to look at past mistakes.


Absolutely fascinating!   March 15, 2001
Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA)
16 out of 19 found this review helpful

In this fascinating book, Professor Fagan introduces something of a climactic history of Europe. The first chapter covers the Medieval Warm Period of 900 to 1300 AD, when Greenland supported a thriving dairy-producing economy, and when French vintners sought protection against the import of fine English wines! Also sprinkled through the book are references to a Mini-Ice Age that extended from 500 to 900 AD, and an earlier warm period extending from 100 to 400 AD.

The second chapter chronicles the traumatic ordeal that Europe experienced as the planet cooled and weather took on new, harsher patterns. The author then continues on to document the tribulations of Little Ice Age Europe, and the changes that the new environment spurred. In the final chapter, the end of the Little Ice Age is covered, along with the author's thoughts on Global Warming.

This book is absolutely fascinating. Most history books do not mention the climate, except as background. Professor Fagan, on the other hand, rightly shows how the climate can be a major factor. The book is easily read (and not academic in tone), and very informative.

I must admit that this book has changed some of my opinions on Global Warming, and given me a great deal to think about. I am fascinated by the apparent yo-yoing of global temperatures throughout history, and hope to find a book that looks at the subject over a longer timeframe. This is a great book, and I recommend it to everyone.


Pertinent even to our own times.   April 18, 2002
Atheen M. Wilson (Mpls, MN United States)
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

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


Very Interesting Book   November 29, 2002
Donald Giuliano (Norman, Oklahoma United States)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

As a meteorologist, I take special interest in books such as this which relate weather to the bigger picture of world history and events. Sometimes, however, it seems as though authors (be it intentionally or simply through ignorance) sacrifice scientific integrity in favor of a more interesting story or to avoid confusing the reader, or fall into the related trap of getting really bogged down in a quagmire of equations and esoteric scientific terminology which have little place in a book written for the lay-person.

This book successfully avoids both of these traps. The author (an archaeologist) clearly demonstrates that he went to considerable effort to understand the science behind what he is discussing, and he effectively relates the climate fluctuations experienced in the "Little Ice Age" to the evolution of society at the time. This is done in a manner that anyone can understand, as he explains important concepts in a very readable fashion embedded within the text. Also, he is careful to note how little we still really understand about climate change, and shies away from the "Chicken Little" doomsday sensationalism so prevalent today. This said, he also notes that climate change is definitely an issue we should be concerned with, as one way or another it will have a strong impact on our future and should not be ignored.

Overall, I found this to be a very interesting book that read very well and recommend it to anyone interested in how weather can affect human life and world history. Fellow meteorologists out there may wish for a few more technical details, but hey, that's what the AMS journals are for. :-)