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The Complete Ice Age 1st (first) edition Text Only
Written by three distinguished experts and overseen by a leading historian of climate change, Brian Fagan, The Complete Ice Age reveals how climate fluctuated wildly between severe glacial periods and warmer intervals, how long-extinct creatures once roamed the harsh landscapes, and how archaic and then modern humans adapted as they spread from tropical Africa and colonized the world.This book covers a critical period in Earth s and humanity s history, from two million years ago to the present day. We travel with Neanderthal and more recent Ice Age hunters and encounter saber-toothed tigers and the giant woolly mammoth. We learn how new scientific enquiries, from DNA evidence to the study of human bones, are revealing the adaptability and evolution of the human species.And what of the future? We tend to forget that we are currently enjoying a warmer interglacial respite that began just 12,000 years ago. If past climatic change is any guide, the Ice Age should return within, geologically, a relatively short time. But will it, or will human profligacy cause catastrophic global warming?With contributions by John F. Hoffecker (University of Colorado), Mark Maslin (University College London), and Hannah O Regan (Liverpool John Moores University).
- GenresNonfictionScienceHistory
Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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About the author
Brian M. Fagan
179 books269 followersBrian Murray Fagan was a British author of popular archaeology books and a professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 7, 2019
Fagan (et al) have drunk some of the Kool-aid of climate change alarmism -- but his history of climate science is first-rate. Few fields of science have become so politicized, and few feature so many fact-free assertions of alarm, as present-day climate science. My opinion, of course.
Conclusions: a worthwhile history of climate change over the last 2.5 million years or so (the great Pleistocene glaciations) and a good discussion of how to start an Ice Age -- and why it unwinds a lot faster than the ice builds up! Lovely set of photos, maps and illustrative art, lacking only a few key maps (I'll supply one of these). Weak and pat final chapter on the tired CAGW hypothesis, which I will critique in due time. Well worth reading, but keep an open mind re the preachy stuff. Fortunately, this book long precedes the current "Green New Deal" (etc.) silliness!
Now to distill my 6 pages of notes:
Why is there ice at the poles? Usually not, over the long geological history of the Earth. (The last Ice Age prior to the current was the Karoo, which ended about 260 million years ago.) Need a continent there (such as Antarctica) to get a really cold polar region. Antarctica features a climate gradient of around 65ºC (115ºF) from the south Pole to the equator! By contrast, a hypothetical ice-free pole, with no landmasses nearby, might have had a gradient of just 30ºC (55ºF) from pole to equator. By 5Mm yrs BP, large ice sheets covered Antarctica & Greenland, much as they do today.
Straits of Gibraltar closed about 6Mm yrs BP, and the Mediterranean Sea dried up, removing ~6% of all the salt from the world-ocean. Strait re-opened around 5.3 million years ago (MMy BP): BIG waterfall, much of salt re-dissolved, perhaps aborting a (hypothetical) earlier Ice Age? Panama Seaway closed gradually between 4.5 to 2 Mm yrs bp, enhancing Gulf Stream flow, but also pumping more moisture into the atmosphere. Stage is set for the great Pleistocene glaciations!
Build-up of continental ice-sheets (eg Canada, northern Europe) is slow & episodic: it takes around 80,oo0 yrs to build a major ice-cap. By contrast, de-glaciation is rapid, taking on the order of 4,000 yrs. This has happened 5 times in the past 500,000 yrs. The Ice Age climate is unstable. In warmer interludes, HUGE fleets of icebergs are launched from (for example) West Greenland. As they melt, the cold fresh water flood floats on top of denser salt water, probably shutting down the Gulf Stream. Western Europe gets really cold then! Bison-hunters moved temporarily into Yukon & Alaska, during the Younger Dryas cold (about 12,000 yrs BP), which brought back tundra-steppe vegetation. In a few hundred years, the climate warmed, tundra retreated and bison + hunters left too.
"Doggerland" rose above water in today's English Channel around 7500 yrs ago and connected Britain to continental Europe. It emerged and reflooded five times in the past 500,000 yrs, as sea levels fluctuated violently in the great global freeze-thaw cycle. At maximum ice, sea levels were about 400 ft (120 m) below current levels. During the 7500 yrs BP emergence, Ireland was also connected by dry land to Wales and England, and a huge river, comprising the Thames, Rhine and other large European rivers, emptied into the Atlantic along the center-line of today's English Channel. And here is the map series I promised, of Doggerland from 18,000 to 7,500 yrs BP, showing land emerging, sinking, then emerging again: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi.... All of Dogggerland is now underwater again.
Once again, if you have any interest in this topic, you NEED to check out this book! I'm looking at p.160: a cute Russian boy holding a frozen mammoth calf that his Dad found; it was probably a year old when it died (around 42,000 yrs BP), and deep-frozen ever since: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4334011... . Next: p. 169, "Blue Babe", the stuffed carcass of a steppe bison, killed by lion attack around 36,000 years ago, mummified, and found by a miner in the permafrost in 1979. He's now in the Fairbanks Museum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_... The museum staff made a stew of part of Blue's neck! Is this great stuff, or what?
The "last gasp"of the Ice Age was the Younger Dryas, a return to glacial conditions from around 12,900 to 11,700 years BP. In Mesopotamia, the ensuing droughts encouraged the development of agriculture. The new farmers discovered that selective breeding of existing crop plants was fast and pretty easy, and their civilization reacted to adverse climate-change with remarkable resilience. This was a pretty common occurrence worldwide, with differences in timing depending on local conditions. Why change if the old ways are still working? Full-blown agriculture developed in the Indus Valley by 8,000 years ago, and in China's Yangtze Valley by 9,000 yrs BP. It's worth remembering how resilient our ancestors were, in the face of truly drastic climate change, when hearing dire forecasts of the end of our civilization as we know it! Could the prophets of doom have a political agenda?
Which brings me to the final chapter, attempting to make the case for just that. It's a pretty weak and pat affair (imo), and makes little or no effort to address (for example) the positive aspects of burning fossil fuels --besides powering our civilization, that is. Plants LOVE CO2! And there is no real consideration of how much the climate might actually warm with (say) doubling the CO2 content. Recent empirical observations suggest that warming may be much less than the computer models forecast -- and the models themselves have a poor record for "hindcasting." Something to keep in mind, when a politician says we need to spend a few trillion dollars on windmills and solar!
Regardless, the history-of-science part is great. Just keep a skeptical stance at the very end, is my advice. Recommended.
Conclusions: a worthwhile history of climate change over the last 2.5 million years or so (the great Pleistocene glaciations) and a good discussion of how to start an Ice Age -- and why it unwinds a lot faster than the ice builds up! Lovely set of photos, maps and illustrative art, lacking only a few key maps (I'll supply one of these). Weak and pat final chapter on the tired CAGW hypothesis, which I will critique in due time. Well worth reading, but keep an open mind re the preachy stuff. Fortunately, this book long precedes the current "Green New Deal" (etc.) silliness!
Now to distill my 6 pages of notes:
Why is there ice at the poles? Usually not, over the long geological history of the Earth. (The last Ice Age prior to the current was the Karoo, which ended about 260 million years ago.) Need a continent there (such as Antarctica) to get a really cold polar region. Antarctica features a climate gradient of around 65ºC (115ºF) from the south Pole to the equator! By contrast, a hypothetical ice-free pole, with no landmasses nearby, might have had a gradient of just 30ºC (55ºF) from pole to equator. By 5Mm yrs BP, large ice sheets covered Antarctica & Greenland, much as they do today.
Straits of Gibraltar closed about 6Mm yrs BP, and the Mediterranean Sea dried up, removing ~6% of all the salt from the world-ocean. Strait re-opened around 5.3 million years ago (MMy BP): BIG waterfall, much of salt re-dissolved, perhaps aborting a (hypothetical) earlier Ice Age? Panama Seaway closed gradually between 4.5 to 2 Mm yrs bp, enhancing Gulf Stream flow, but also pumping more moisture into the atmosphere. Stage is set for the great Pleistocene glaciations!
Build-up of continental ice-sheets (eg Canada, northern Europe) is slow & episodic: it takes around 80,oo0 yrs to build a major ice-cap. By contrast, de-glaciation is rapid, taking on the order of 4,000 yrs. This has happened 5 times in the past 500,000 yrs. The Ice Age climate is unstable. In warmer interludes, HUGE fleets of icebergs are launched from (for example) West Greenland. As they melt, the cold fresh water flood floats on top of denser salt water, probably shutting down the Gulf Stream. Western Europe gets really cold then! Bison-hunters moved temporarily into Yukon & Alaska, during the Younger Dryas cold (about 12,000 yrs BP), which brought back tundra-steppe vegetation. In a few hundred years, the climate warmed, tundra retreated and bison + hunters left too.
"Doggerland" rose above water in today's English Channel around 7500 yrs ago and connected Britain to continental Europe. It emerged and reflooded five times in the past 500,000 yrs, as sea levels fluctuated violently in the great global freeze-thaw cycle. At maximum ice, sea levels were about 400 ft (120 m) below current levels. During the 7500 yrs BP emergence, Ireland was also connected by dry land to Wales and England, and a huge river, comprising the Thames, Rhine and other large European rivers, emptied into the Atlantic along the center-line of today's English Channel. And here is the map series I promised, of Doggerland from 18,000 to 7,500 yrs BP, showing land emerging, sinking, then emerging again: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi.... All of Dogggerland is now underwater again.
Once again, if you have any interest in this topic, you NEED to check out this book! I'm looking at p.160: a cute Russian boy holding a frozen mammoth calf that his Dad found; it was probably a year old when it died (around 42,000 yrs BP), and deep-frozen ever since: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/4334011... . Next: p. 169, "Blue Babe", the stuffed carcass of a steppe bison, killed by lion attack around 36,000 years ago, mummified, and found by a miner in the permafrost in 1979. He's now in the Fairbanks Museum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppe_... The museum staff made a stew of part of Blue's neck! Is this great stuff, or what?
The "last gasp"of the Ice Age was the Younger Dryas, a return to glacial conditions from around 12,900 to 11,700 years BP. In Mesopotamia, the ensuing droughts encouraged the development of agriculture. The new farmers discovered that selective breeding of existing crop plants was fast and pretty easy, and their civilization reacted to adverse climate-change with remarkable resilience. This was a pretty common occurrence worldwide, with differences in timing depending on local conditions. Why change if the old ways are still working? Full-blown agriculture developed in the Indus Valley by 8,000 years ago, and in China's Yangtze Valley by 9,000 yrs BP. It's worth remembering how resilient our ancestors were, in the face of truly drastic climate change, when hearing dire forecasts of the end of our civilization as we know it! Could the prophets of doom have a political agenda?
Which brings me to the final chapter, attempting to make the case for just that. It's a pretty weak and pat affair (imo), and makes little or no effort to address (for example) the positive aspects of burning fossil fuels --besides powering our civilization, that is. Plants LOVE CO2! And there is no real consideration of how much the climate might actually warm with (say) doubling the CO2 content. Recent empirical observations suggest that warming may be much less than the computer models forecast -- and the models themselves have a poor record for "hindcasting." Something to keep in mind, when a politician says we need to spend a few trillion dollars on windmills and solar!
Regardless, the history-of-science part is great. Just keep a skeptical stance at the very end, is my advice. Recommended.
September 15, 2011
Good book for average reader.
If you are looking for a universal (including pre- and post-) Ice Age book for a wide audience - not a biography with a history of discovery, or a list of archeological findings at each site, or dramatic inspirational reading for young adults - this is a book for you (and me).
It covers events as they develop in time, by continent (including tropics and far north) with changes in time, causes and consequences. Astronomy, climate, hydrodynamics, tectonics, anthropology, zoology, ecology (all paleo-, naturally), influence on societies up to present time (and prognosis for a future). A lot of small facts that tie all picture together - if you look behind the wording, it's fascinating.
Rare case when title of the book reflects the content.
Chapters are organized by topic and were written by different authors with variable literary skills, but all together the book is readable and fills nicely the gaps in information you already know. Short, lean (but not particularly concise and clear) writing, with sometimes a little too much unnecessary "scientist and the method" details and lack of details on result produced. Fairly well illustrated (contemporary photos, historical art sources, maps and diagrams).
Discovering Ice Age and Searching for Clues cover history of discoveries, methods used and results summarized in maps and diagrams.
How the Age of Ice Began covers the multitude of factors, one by one, and their changes in the history of the planet. Amazing. Wish to see more of this.
The Climatic Rollercoaster describes what made Ice Age possible, location of major ice shields and their development, all continents covered, and traces left to the present times. Progress, proportions and mechanisms.
The Human Story shows development and life of humans starting with before Ice Age. How much of this can you find usually in popular works? Northern Neanderthals and tropical anatomically modern humans, comparison (that raises questions at once), development events in time and by continent, observations that give a food for thought (other than was intended). Again, the whole world is covered, not just half of Africa, Near East and south of Europe. Obsession with artistic expression draws involuntary reaction: what layers of modern societies will leave no arts after them? Guess and you will be right. Could be the same for the past. In any case, this is a good start to dig deeper.
The Ice Age Bestiary, the best written and most interesting part of the book. Again, all continents and development in time. I would prefer no atrocities, to be able sleep at night.
After the Ice Age: what happened after, including hydrodynamics and tectonics, by continent, almost to present times, through the Medieval Warm Period and following the Little Ice Age, what caused abandonment of Mayan and Pueblo sites and caused the French revolution. The frozen Thames. So much so little known (for me) facts. Fascinating.
Hot or Cold Future? is about contemporary climatic trends, recent catastrophes, photos of devastation, futuristic movie, map picturing size of the country by amount of CO2 it produces, El Nino, now human induced climate change and possible solutions. As is.
Take a look at this book, maybe you will appreciate it too.
If you are looking for a universal (including pre- and post-) Ice Age book for a wide audience - not a biography with a history of discovery, or a list of archeological findings at each site, or dramatic inspirational reading for young adults - this is a book for you (and me).
It covers events as they develop in time, by continent (including tropics and far north) with changes in time, causes and consequences. Astronomy, climate, hydrodynamics, tectonics, anthropology, zoology, ecology (all paleo-, naturally), influence on societies up to present time (and prognosis for a future). A lot of small facts that tie all picture together - if you look behind the wording, it's fascinating.
Rare case when title of the book reflects the content.
Chapters are organized by topic and were written by different authors with variable literary skills, but all together the book is readable and fills nicely the gaps in information you already know. Short, lean (but not particularly concise and clear) writing, with sometimes a little too much unnecessary "scientist and the method" details and lack of details on result produced. Fairly well illustrated (contemporary photos, historical art sources, maps and diagrams).
Discovering Ice Age and Searching for Clues cover history of discoveries, methods used and results summarized in maps and diagrams.
How the Age of Ice Began covers the multitude of factors, one by one, and their changes in the history of the planet. Amazing. Wish to see more of this.
The Climatic Rollercoaster describes what made Ice Age possible, location of major ice shields and their development, all continents covered, and traces left to the present times. Progress, proportions and mechanisms.
The Human Story shows development and life of humans starting with before Ice Age. How much of this can you find usually in popular works? Northern Neanderthals and tropical anatomically modern humans, comparison (that raises questions at once), development events in time and by continent, observations that give a food for thought (other than was intended). Again, the whole world is covered, not just half of Africa, Near East and south of Europe. Obsession with artistic expression draws involuntary reaction: what layers of modern societies will leave no arts after them? Guess and you will be right. Could be the same for the past. In any case, this is a good start to dig deeper.
The Ice Age Bestiary, the best written and most interesting part of the book. Again, all continents and development in time. I would prefer no atrocities, to be able sleep at night.
After the Ice Age: what happened after, including hydrodynamics and tectonics, by continent, almost to present times, through the Medieval Warm Period and following the Little Ice Age, what caused abandonment of Mayan and Pueblo sites and caused the French revolution. The frozen Thames. So much so little known (for me) facts. Fascinating.
Hot or Cold Future? is about contemporary climatic trends, recent catastrophes, photos of devastation, futuristic movie, map picturing size of the country by amount of CO2 it produces, El Nino, now human induced climate change and possible solutions. As is.
Take a look at this book, maybe you will appreciate it too.
October 20, 2018
A pretty interesting overview of the Ice Ages, mostly confined to the current one (because we are still technically in a warm period during the current Ice Age, though global warming may disrupt the return of the cold, ironically enough), but also covering previous ice ages (lower case) in Earth history.
The book is divided into a number of sections, each written by a different specialist in their field, and covers such subjects as climatology, paleontology and archaeology. Each section is well illustrated and compelling told, and tries to cover a world wide perspective (though that still means mostly North America and Europe). The only reason I gave it 3 stars was that the book is now a bit out of date (2009) and some things have moved on quite a lot, so 3 1/2 stars would be closer.
I took a long time to read this book, but only because of real life stuff getting in the way, not because it was a bad book.
The book is divided into a number of sections, each written by a different specialist in their field, and covers such subjects as climatology, paleontology and archaeology. Each section is well illustrated and compelling told, and tries to cover a world wide perspective (though that still means mostly North America and Europe). The only reason I gave it 3 stars was that the book is now a bit out of date (2009) and some things have moved on quite a lot, so 3 1/2 stars would be closer.
I took a long time to read this book, but only because of real life stuff getting in the way, not because it was a bad book.
June 11, 2017
An excellent, readable summary of the major events of the Ice Age. As it must cover a vast amount of ground, both geographically and chronologically, it does not go into great depth, but more than enough information (by way of the essays, graphs, charts, photographs, etc.) is provided to give the reader a good understanding of what has happened in our planet's past and what its future may well look like. (Scary, if you're Homo sapiens; not such a big deal if you're Terra.)
No matter how many science and history courses one takes in college to supplement their humanities, there will always be gaps in one's education. This is why continuing to read non-fiction once out of school is vital to intellectual growth. For instance, I did not realize that our present polar ice caps are not the norm for Earth, nor did I know that ours is the first interglacial period in which mammoths, saber tooths, mastodons, and so on have not existed.
Like the other "Complete" books in the Thames & Hudson series, Ice Age does a solid job of filling those gaps and giving the reader a working knowledge of its subject. (And no book with contributions by Brian Fagan is ever anything less than enlightening.)
April 4, 2016
Found this to be an excellent source of information. My only regret is that I had to read it too fast in order to return it to it's owner, because it also offered a large array of images that I would have liked to linger over.
August 21, 2018
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3052236.html
Nicely put together and gorgeously illustrated, a set of essays about our knowledge of ice ages (at least as of 2010; things may have moved on since then). I had not realised that the current period of ice ages (since 2.6 million years ago) is actually a rather rare situation in global history; in general the Earth has had a warmer temperature than now, rising to 8°C above today's average at about 55.5 million years ago. The book looks at how continental drift and changing ocean currents have created (and sometimes failed to create) the conditions for an ice age to happen, and also at the impact of ice ages on human prehistory, going quite deep into hominins and Neanderthals. All quite fascinating.
Nicely put together and gorgeously illustrated, a set of essays about our knowledge of ice ages (at least as of 2010; things may have moved on since then). I had not realised that the current period of ice ages (since 2.6 million years ago) is actually a rather rare situation in global history; in general the Earth has had a warmer temperature than now, rising to 8°C above today's average at about 55.5 million years ago. The book looks at how continental drift and changing ocean currents have created (and sometimes failed to create) the conditions for an ice age to happen, and also at the impact of ice ages on human prehistory, going quite deep into hominins and Neanderthals. All quite fascinating.
July 27, 2019
A very interesting read that offered many insights new to me, not least due to an excellent chapter on the history behind the discovery of the existence of the Ice Age in the 1800s. The Ice Age as a period holds a huge appeal for me, and it was lovely to find a book dealing only with the Ice Age itself rather than a more general book on, say, human evolution or the spread of modern humans. I also love the broad focus, as the book includes information on the history of the discovery, the geology and climactic conditions, the flora and fauna and the human presence. Highly recommended for anyone interested in this particular period of our past.
December 12, 2022
A very accessible book that explains the basic geology, biology, and anthropology associated with the Ice Age. It was pretty difficult to find a book on this subject matter, so I’m very happy to have found this, and please feel free to recommend others.
My favorite takeaways were:
- Ocean currents, ice sheets, and carbon dioxide enter into a feedback loop that feeds into both the starts and ends of ice ages.
- Global warming historically happens much faster than global cooling (and therefore is “easier”).
- Previous interglacials have had frequent erratic temperature swings. Our current interglacial has had relatively smooth changes in comparison (although we’ve still had the Great Warming and then the Little Ice Age, which Fagan has also written about).
- The rise of water systems and therefore agriculture and cities may have been caused by changing climate in some cases. Due to the link between changing ocean current and changing climate, changing climate affects global water movement, in turn affecting drought and storm frequencies.
- The temperature gradient during ice ages (between the poles and the equator) causes a more dynamic climate system - e.g. hurricanes. The current high temperatures combined with glaciated poles is very rare in geological history
- There were some amazing animals that lived during the ice age - giant armadillos, lizards, sloths - and some cool pictures in the book too.
The book has a lot of information, but I would have personally preferred some more coherence, context, and conclusions. This is not necessarily a criticism of the book. I may well learn more if I I read for the sake of knowledge and/or made my own connections, than if I expected authors to tell me that something is “useful” for [x reason] or is connected to some part of modern society. I just think that there are some parts that would have been more interesting to me if I were given more context. Fagan is an anthropologist, so he assigns inmate value to the fact that the Aurignacians created complex art and thus probably had a language. But I’m not an anthropologist, so I don’t have the same context as to why this is interesting or how it ties back to the rest of the book. In contrast, I’ve heard about my home state’s worsening drought for years, so I have full context as to why the link between changing temperatures and changing water flow is interesting. Again, maybe this book isn’t meant to be tied together other than being a collection of knowledge about the last ice age; and readers can just pick and choose the parts that appeal to them. This paragraph is just to explain why I gave it 4/5 stars - a personal rating, and perhaps useful for other potential readers.
My favorite takeaways were:
- Ocean currents, ice sheets, and carbon dioxide enter into a feedback loop that feeds into both the starts and ends of ice ages.
- Global warming historically happens much faster than global cooling (and therefore is “easier”).
- Previous interglacials have had frequent erratic temperature swings. Our current interglacial has had relatively smooth changes in comparison (although we’ve still had the Great Warming and then the Little Ice Age, which Fagan has also written about).
- The rise of water systems and therefore agriculture and cities may have been caused by changing climate in some cases. Due to the link between changing ocean current and changing climate, changing climate affects global water movement, in turn affecting drought and storm frequencies.
- The temperature gradient during ice ages (between the poles and the equator) causes a more dynamic climate system - e.g. hurricanes. The current high temperatures combined with glaciated poles is very rare in geological history
- There were some amazing animals that lived during the ice age - giant armadillos, lizards, sloths - and some cool pictures in the book too.
The book has a lot of information, but I would have personally preferred some more coherence, context, and conclusions. This is not necessarily a criticism of the book. I may well learn more if I I read for the sake of knowledge and/or made my own connections, than if I expected authors to tell me that something is “useful” for [x reason] or is connected to some part of modern society. I just think that there are some parts that would have been more interesting to me if I were given more context. Fagan is an anthropologist, so he assigns inmate value to the fact that the Aurignacians created complex art and thus probably had a language. But I’m not an anthropologist, so I don’t have the same context as to why this is interesting or how it ties back to the rest of the book. In contrast, I’ve heard about my home state’s worsening drought for years, so I have full context as to why the link between changing temperatures and changing water flow is interesting. Again, maybe this book isn’t meant to be tied together other than being a collection of knowledge about the last ice age; and readers can just pick and choose the parts that appeal to them. This paragraph is just to explain why I gave it 4/5 stars - a personal rating, and perhaps useful for other potential readers.
June 28, 2023
A very thorough non-fiction about the topic of ice ages. It delves deeply into various factors such as the climate, the various glacial periods, the animals and humans that lived and evolved during these times, and it even gives us a brief glimpse into the (rather depressing) here and now and even possibly the future, with global warming going on.
Very good book and I really feel the authors knew what they were talking about and left no stone unturned. At times the book was a bit hard to understand for me (especially the climate/geography aspects because that's just not something I'm well-versed in). But still the authors clearly know their thing, that's really more on me than anything.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
Very good book and I really feel the authors knew what they were talking about and left no stone unturned. At times the book was a bit hard to understand for me (especially the climate/geography aspects because that's just not something I'm well-versed in). But still the authors clearly know their thing, that's really more on me than anything.
Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/20...
April 5, 2013
I thought Ice Age was just an excellent book. I read it conjunction with Brian Fagan's The Long Summer and I preferred Ice Age. I felt that The Long Summer contained a great deal of gratuitous filler about how people might have hunted, might have farmed, might have lived, etc. I prefer my non fiction a bit less speculative, and Ice Age fit the bill perfectly in this regard. In particular, the chapters on the history, causes, and magnitude of climate change authored by Mark Maslin were models of clarity and conciseness. Admittedly Ice Age is an overview aimed at a lay audience and probably wouldn't satisfy the needs of academics, but for me it merits five stars.
June 2, 2013
A fascinating and comprehensive overview of the Ice Age, including a section on future climate change. For me, the book provided an excellent introduction to Ice Age studies and I would now like to follow on from this and read more about the human story.
This is certainly a book I will read more than once, just because of the amount of detailed information packed into its 230 pages. The book also contains some fascinating photos and illustrations.
This is certainly a book I will read more than once, just because of the amount of detailed information packed into its 230 pages. The book also contains some fascinating photos and illustrations.
September 7, 2014
lots of beautiful pictures, nice organization.
Read
June 28, 2018Good. Enjoyed this book.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews