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The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850
Only in the last decade have climatologists developed an accurate picture of yearly climate conditions in historical times. This development confirmed a long-standing that the world endured a 500-year cold snap -- The Little Ice Age -- that lasted roughly from A.D. 1300 until 1850. 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. 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.
272 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 27, 2000
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About the author
Brian M. Fagan
180 books270 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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July 14, 2025
I read this book years ago and was fascinated by all the examples that showed how climate has affected history. Published in 2000, this book put forth the case that the world went through "a little ice age" from 1300-1850, and before and after there was (and is) a warming period. I remembered reading that there were large fairs on the frozen Thames River from the late 1600s until Victorian times in the mid-19th Century. And what really stuck with me was that the increasing cold conditions doomed the Norse/ Viking colonies in Greenland and ended any chance of their colonizing at least a part of North America.
I did a quick reread to refresh my memory on many of the details that Brian Fagan went into. One important point is that the time period he talks about was not uniformly colder over that time period. By 1400, weather had become more unpredictable with sudden temperature shifts culminating in the cold decades of the late 16th Century. There was a warmer period in the 18th Century, but then it became much colder in the 19th C.
The most powerful chapter in the book I thought was about "the Great Hunger" in Ireland. Cold wet weather had destroyed grain crops in Ireland in the 18th C. and the Irish switched to the easily-grown potato. Their overdependence on potatoes proved to be fatal for many, when a fungus caused a potato blight. By 1851, the population fell from 8 million (in 1841) to 6.5 million. A million people emigrated and a million and a half died of famine and associated disease. Fagan points out that political decisions are important to consider. British governmental commitment to "the free market" meant only limited aid being sent to the starving Irish. The government did send troops to keep order, while thousands of bodies lay on the ground and inside the hovels because there was no one to bury them.
After 1850, there was an overall warming of the planet, although there would still be some cold spells. Although there are natural climate cycles, Fagan makes it clear that human activity is the main cause of the increasing warming. An increase in agriculture in such places as North America and the Industrial Revolution, starting in Britain in the late 18th C., started raising the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere, causing a "greenhouse effect." In order to prevent rising sea levels, increased storms, and severe droughts will mean we have to make some important political decisions. Fagan's conclusion is that we humans have always been vulnerable to the effects of climate and we need to learn the lessons from history.
I did a quick reread to refresh my memory on many of the details that Brian Fagan went into. One important point is that the time period he talks about was not uniformly colder over that time period. By 1400, weather had become more unpredictable with sudden temperature shifts culminating in the cold decades of the late 16th Century. There was a warmer period in the 18th Century, but then it became much colder in the 19th C.
The most powerful chapter in the book I thought was about "the Great Hunger" in Ireland. Cold wet weather had destroyed grain crops in Ireland in the 18th C. and the Irish switched to the easily-grown potato. Their overdependence on potatoes proved to be fatal for many, when a fungus caused a potato blight. By 1851, the population fell from 8 million (in 1841) to 6.5 million. A million people emigrated and a million and a half died of famine and associated disease. Fagan points out that political decisions are important to consider. British governmental commitment to "the free market" meant only limited aid being sent to the starving Irish. The government did send troops to keep order, while thousands of bodies lay on the ground and inside the hovels because there was no one to bury them.
After 1850, there was an overall warming of the planet, although there would still be some cold spells. Although there are natural climate cycles, Fagan makes it clear that human activity is the main cause of the increasing warming. An increase in agriculture in such places as North America and the Industrial Revolution, starting in Britain in the late 18th C., started raising the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere, causing a "greenhouse effect." In order to prevent rising sea levels, increased storms, and severe droughts will mean we have to make some important political decisions. Fagan's conclusion is that we humans have always been vulnerable to the effects of climate and we need to learn the lessons from history.
October 7, 2024
My wife and I have been ‘radicalized’ over the past decade when it comes to man-made climate change: we hardly use our care anymore and instead rely on bicycles and public transport; we don't fly anymore or as little as possible; we have extra insulated our home, invested in solar panels and a home battery, eat mostly vegetarian, and even participate in demonstrations to encourage politicians to adopt a more decisive environmental policy. We believe that, based on the scientific insights of the IPCC, there should be no more discussion about the need for a drastic approach worldwide; the only thing that can and should be debated is the social repercussions of a climate policy. In other words, we are anything but climate deniers.
However, I can get really angry when the climate case is pleaded with wrong or false arguments, and when, from a woke-like reflex, everything is attributed to “global warming”. To me, it’s not done to relate every heavy storm or flood, drought or heat period to climate change; that just isn't scientific. And I’m particular sensitive to the misuse of the past in the service of the climate cause. Especially the abundant literature of the last decade on the so-called 'Little Ice Age', is often guilty of this. And this book, by archaeologist-anthropologist Brian Fagan, is a manifest expression of that. The list of things that irritated me whilst reading is too long to discuss in detail here (I run through some of them in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Fagan is a good storyteller, that much is clear, and this book offers interesting reading, I won't dispute that. And I won't contradict his warm plea at the end to take the current climate crisis seriously and to take appropriate measures. But the theme would be better served with a more kosher approach to history.
However, I can get really angry when the climate case is pleaded with wrong or false arguments, and when, from a woke-like reflex, everything is attributed to “global warming”. To me, it’s not done to relate every heavy storm or flood, drought or heat period to climate change; that just isn't scientific. And I’m particular sensitive to the misuse of the past in the service of the climate cause. Especially the abundant literature of the last decade on the so-called 'Little Ice Age', is often guilty of this. And this book, by archaeologist-anthropologist Brian Fagan, is a manifest expression of that. The list of things that irritated me whilst reading is too long to discuss in detail here (I run through some of them in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Fagan is a good storyteller, that much is clear, and this book offers interesting reading, I won't dispute that. And I won't contradict his warm plea at the end to take the current climate crisis seriously and to take appropriate measures. But the theme would be better served with a more kosher approach to history.
May 21, 2013
I'm a climatologist reading a book on climate by an anthropologist, so I'm going to be skeptical. I enjoyed the history of agricultural development in Europe and the North Atlantic, especially passages such as this:
"Filthy, clad in rags, barely surviving on a diet of bread, cheese, and water, the rural worker of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain was a far cry from the attractive, apple-cheeked villager so beloved of artists and greeting card companies." [page 146]
I was less satisfied with his treatment of weather and climate. He ascribes everything to the NAO -- literally every time his history comes upon a period of storms (droughts), he mentions that it was probably due to a low (high) phase of the NAO... without citing any record of NAO. He's been told that the NAO controls European climate, and that gives him a carte blanche to say the NAO must have been high this drought in France, low during this cold and wet period in Scotland, low during a decade of cold waters around Iceland, etc. Sure, the NAO explains a large part of the variance of temperature and precipitation in Northern Europe (about 50% ?), but it's a far cry from causing every single weather event. We have NAO indices from instrumental records as far back as 1870, and before then, we can see the NAO in Greenland ice cores (e.g. this Science paper). I'd expect someone who argues for the influence of climate (or weather) on continental-scale agriculture to have looked this up.
He also seems to lack any understanding of the NAO as red noise, e.g. referring to different parts of the NAO "cycle" and making statements like this: "We do not know what causes high and low indices, nor can we yet predict the sudden reversals that trigger traumatic extremes." [page 28]
The book also suffered from a very poor copy editor. The San(?!) Josef Glacier in New Zealand; six kilometers is roughly ten miles; inconsistent use / absence of special characters in foreign words.
All in all, nice try.
"Filthy, clad in rags, barely surviving on a diet of bread, cheese, and water, the rural worker of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain was a far cry from the attractive, apple-cheeked villager so beloved of artists and greeting card companies." [page 146]
I was less satisfied with his treatment of weather and climate. He ascribes everything to the NAO -- literally every time his history comes upon a period of storms (droughts), he mentions that it was probably due to a low (high) phase of the NAO... without citing any record of NAO. He's been told that the NAO controls European climate, and that gives him a carte blanche to say the NAO must have been high this drought in France, low during this cold and wet period in Scotland, low during a decade of cold waters around Iceland, etc. Sure, the NAO explains a large part of the variance of temperature and precipitation in Northern Europe (about 50% ?), but it's a far cry from causing every single weather event. We have NAO indices from instrumental records as far back as 1870, and before then, we can see the NAO in Greenland ice cores (e.g. this Science paper). I'd expect someone who argues for the influence of climate (or weather) on continental-scale agriculture to have looked this up.
He also seems to lack any understanding of the NAO as red noise, e.g. referring to different parts of the NAO "cycle" and making statements like this: "We do not know what causes high and low indices, nor can we yet predict the sudden reversals that trigger traumatic extremes." [page 28]
The book also suffered from a very poor copy editor. The San(?!) Josef Glacier in New Zealand; six kilometers is roughly ten miles; inconsistent use / absence of special characters in foreign words.
All in all, nice try.
Read
October 21, 2024I’m afraid I have to go for a Minority Report here, because while I share Brian Fagan’s concern for the current climate crisis, I really can’t follow the way he (and many others) uses/abuses history for that noble cause. I don’t dispute that this is an interesting and very readable book, but it contains so many inconsistencies that it undermines its message. Let me list a few arguments.
First of all, Fagan constantly uses different dates: his title mentions the period 1300-1850, which is extremely broad, but in his introduction he talks once about 5 centuries of cold, and then again about 7 centuries. His story even starts with testimonies on extreme winters in 1190, more than a century before his earliest date. And while other authors usually end around 1750-1800, he ends in 1850, just to be able to tell the story of the Irish famine, a famine that was not directly related to cold, but to a potato blight. Throughout the book, Fagan also constantly refers to different periods as the most extreme cold period of the Little Ice Age: ‘the two centuries after 1590’, for example, or also ‘1680-1730’ and a bit further on ‘1805-1820’. In other words, Fagan is inconsistent, and mainly cherry-picks.
You would also expect that in a book like this you would first get an explanation of observations that scientists are now making about the climate in the past, based on, for example, ice core drillings and tree rings. Fagan does refer to this, but keeps these references very vague. He prefers to use all kinds of chronicles and quotes historical testimonies about violent storms, major floods, severe winters, the growth or decline of glaciers, and extreme droughts. These testimonies of course are real, but they are so variable and so regionally/locally bound that it is difficult to draw a general line. And furthermore: when he refers or quotes, he does not mention his sources anywhere, which is a major shortcoming for anyone who wants to tell a sound historical story.
Like every good storyteller, Fagan likes dramatizations. For example, he deliberately chooses the most extreme testimonies from the chronicles. Of course, this increases the suspense of his argument, but in the long run you see so much drama passing by that it all becomes one blur. And what about platitudes such as this quote about the Norseman Eirik:"Eirik was quarrelsome and endowed with a temper that matched his red hair." This is really substandard. And I could go on like this for a while.
But I would rather end with a general critical consideration on the term Little Ice Age. To be honest: I find this term downright ridiculous. That there was a global temperature drop between, roughly speaking, 1400 and 1800 cannot be denied. In its sixth report, the IPCC states that there was probably a drop of 0.03 degrees Celsius between 1450 and 1850 compared to 1850–1900. You read that right: 0.03 degrees. Of course, that global average hides the fact that there were considerably higher drops in some regions and some time periods. For example, most reports show that the cooling occurred mainly, if not exclusively, in the northern hemisphere (the classic fact of the larger land masses there), and even then those cooling periods are usually limited to very defined areas and periods. The fact that Fagan mainly cites North-Western European testimonies is already an indication of that. And finally: if you know that in the last real Ice Age there was an estimated decrease in average temperature of 6 degrees (again a global figure) and that that last ice age was far from the most severe, then you immediately see that we better stop using the term Little Ice Age. It's just misleading.
With the entire preceding argument I want to emphasize once again how delicate statements about the climate in the past are. Climate studies in general, and those of the past in particular, are still in their infancy, and it is therefore advisable to be very careful with too assertive statements about them. This book sins in that respect on all levels, and that is a pity. Because – once again – I share Fagan's concern about the current climate crisis (which is sufficiently scientifically substantiated).
First of all, Fagan constantly uses different dates: his title mentions the period 1300-1850, which is extremely broad, but in his introduction he talks once about 5 centuries of cold, and then again about 7 centuries. His story even starts with testimonies on extreme winters in 1190, more than a century before his earliest date. And while other authors usually end around 1750-1800, he ends in 1850, just to be able to tell the story of the Irish famine, a famine that was not directly related to cold, but to a potato blight. Throughout the book, Fagan also constantly refers to different periods as the most extreme cold period of the Little Ice Age: ‘the two centuries after 1590’, for example, or also ‘1680-1730’ and a bit further on ‘1805-1820’. In other words, Fagan is inconsistent, and mainly cherry-picks.
You would also expect that in a book like this you would first get an explanation of observations that scientists are now making about the climate in the past, based on, for example, ice core drillings and tree rings. Fagan does refer to this, but keeps these references very vague. He prefers to use all kinds of chronicles and quotes historical testimonies about violent storms, major floods, severe winters, the growth or decline of glaciers, and extreme droughts. These testimonies of course are real, but they are so variable and so regionally/locally bound that it is difficult to draw a general line. And furthermore: when he refers or quotes, he does not mention his sources anywhere, which is a major shortcoming for anyone who wants to tell a sound historical story.
Like every good storyteller, Fagan likes dramatizations. For example, he deliberately chooses the most extreme testimonies from the chronicles. Of course, this increases the suspense of his argument, but in the long run you see so much drama passing by that it all becomes one blur. And what about platitudes such as this quote about the Norseman Eirik:"Eirik was quarrelsome and endowed with a temper that matched his red hair." This is really substandard. And I could go on like this for a while.
But I would rather end with a general critical consideration on the term Little Ice Age. To be honest: I find this term downright ridiculous. That there was a global temperature drop between, roughly speaking, 1400 and 1800 cannot be denied. In its sixth report, the IPCC states that there was probably a drop of 0.03 degrees Celsius between 1450 and 1850 compared to 1850–1900. You read that right: 0.03 degrees. Of course, that global average hides the fact that there were considerably higher drops in some regions and some time periods. For example, most reports show that the cooling occurred mainly, if not exclusively, in the northern hemisphere (the classic fact of the larger land masses there), and even then those cooling periods are usually limited to very defined areas and periods. The fact that Fagan mainly cites North-Western European testimonies is already an indication of that. And finally: if you know that in the last real Ice Age there was an estimated decrease in average temperature of 6 degrees (again a global figure) and that that last ice age was far from the most severe, then you immediately see that we better stop using the term Little Ice Age. It's just misleading.
With the entire preceding argument I want to emphasize once again how delicate statements about the climate in the past are. Climate studies in general, and those of the past in particular, are still in their infancy, and it is therefore advisable to be very careful with too assertive statements about them. This book sins in that respect on all levels, and that is a pity. Because – once again – I share Fagan's concern about the current climate crisis (which is sufficiently scientifically substantiated).
August 16, 2024
This is the first book I have read by Brian Fagan. I will be reading more.
Fagan points out that no respectable historian would say that weather created political revolutions or population movements, but there are connections. The particularly cold and wet weather often experienced between 1300 and 1850 contributed to poor agricultural results when most people were serfs or small land owners. The hunger and cold and diseased misery and deaths of so many people contributed to emigration to cities and to US. The hunger and cold and diseased misery and deaths of so many people contributed to lack of bread which resulted in insufficient aid through Poor Laws in England and insufficient relief in France. The English government became more democratic as a result of the people demanding that their needs be addressed. The French monarchy and aristocracy were eliminated to a large extent because the French first 2 Estates were so removed from their serfs' misery and the serfs could no longer tolerate it.
Good stories to revive Weather Channel's series When Weather Changed History.
Fagan points out that no respectable historian would say that weather created political revolutions or population movements, but there are connections. The particularly cold and wet weather often experienced between 1300 and 1850 contributed to poor agricultural results when most people were serfs or small land owners. The hunger and cold and diseased misery and deaths of so many people contributed to emigration to cities and to US. The hunger and cold and diseased misery and deaths of so many people contributed to lack of bread which resulted in insufficient aid through Poor Laws in England and insufficient relief in France. The English government became more democratic as a result of the people demanding that their needs be addressed. The French monarchy and aristocracy were eliminated to a large extent because the French first 2 Estates were so removed from their serfs' misery and the serfs could no longer tolerate it.
Good stories to revive Weather Channel's series When Weather Changed History.
abandoned
March 13, 2022Read through page 38 (plus the 8-page introduction). Interesting premise: examining the impact of weather and climate on history—by which of course we mean northern European history; the early pages discuss Scandinavia as much as England and France, though the usual pattern would indicate an ultimately Anglocentric focus—from the warmer centuries at the height of the Middle Ages, through the colder ones from the 14th to 19th centuries. Unfortunately, the writing is dry. Add to that the fact that it was published in 2000, which makes it quite likely dated at the pace that science moves, and I don’t feel much motivation to continue.
February 1, 2013
My favourite kind of pop-science writing! This is so easy to read, and supported by a ton of references and further reading without unbearably cluttering up the text. The only part which I'd rate less then 5 stars is the conclusion. I'm not sure if Fagan's publishers wouldn't let him write something more realistic, but the notion that humans will suddenly decide to "work for the global rather than the national good, for the welfare of our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren rather than to satisfy short-term, often petty, goals" is ludicrous and goes against every piece of evidence in the book. Can you say Kyoto Protocol?
Fagan's explanation and description of the Great Potato Famine was the best I've read: really quite heart-rending stuff.
Fagan's book is 13 years old, and his predictions seem spot on so far from this vantage point: rather than a solid warming, where we enjoy and flourish in a balmy tropical climate, global climate change brings with it an overall trend change while producing temperature anomalies in both the high and low ranges; stronger storms and blizzards, and longer droughts. Plus the remarkable speed with which the Medieval Warm Period flipped suddenly to the Enlightment-era Little Ice Age makes me guess I'd better prepare to fight off wolves while retrieving Russian penicillin from a frozen sea.
Fagan's explanation and description of the Great Potato Famine was the best I've read: really quite heart-rending stuff.
Fagan's book is 13 years old, and his predictions seem spot on so far from this vantage point: rather than a solid warming, where we enjoy and flourish in a balmy tropical climate, global climate change brings with it an overall trend change while producing temperature anomalies in both the high and low ranges; stronger storms and blizzards, and longer droughts. Plus the remarkable speed with which the Medieval Warm Period flipped suddenly to the Enlightment-era Little Ice Age makes me guess I'd better prepare to fight off wolves while retrieving Russian penicillin from a frozen sea.
June 16, 2020
I wouldn’t venture to say this book was disinteresting- I rather enjoy a good dissection of historical weather reports- but I do have my qualms regarding its accuracy and datedness. From what little I know of climate science, the issues go well beyond the tidal implications and NAO- and so I found this a bit lacking. I think an awful lot more contributes to climatology and I was a little sad to see a lack of examination of the impacts of the industrial revolution on the climate.
I think as well that anthropology lends itself to being magnificent for the tales of human interactions with things, but not so much how the world responds to humans. I’m a bit disappointed by the narrow view that this book took, and it would have been far more balanced should a climatologist provided alternating chapters. Still, it has historical merit- it just needs a companion.
I think as well that anthropology lends itself to being magnificent for the tales of human interactions with things, but not so much how the world responds to humans. I’m a bit disappointed by the narrow view that this book took, and it would have been far more balanced should a climatologist provided alternating chapters. Still, it has historical merit- it just needs a companion.
February 6, 2022
На мой взгляд, эта книга - скорее набор исторических эссе, где много внимания уделено климату. Автор углубленно разбирает некоторые сюжеты, но больше внимания он уделяет экономическим и социальным последствиям изменениям погоды, чем рассказу о сути этих изменений.
Эту книгу хорошо почитать как базовый обзор событий 9 - 19 веков (автор начинает не с малого ледникового периода, а с периода средневекового климатического оптимума).
Эту книгу хорошо почитать как базовый обзор событий 9 - 19 веков (автор начинает не с малого ледникового периода, а с периода средневекового климатического оптимума).
dnf
July 25, 2023DNF. Extremely disorganized and hard to follow. Jumps rapidly from topic to topic with no noticeable structure or plan.
August 13, 2024
This is a non-fiction history overview book mainly interested as the title hints about the Little Ice Age during (roughly) 1300-1850. I read it as a part of the buddy reads for August 2024 at Non-Fiction Book Club group.
The book in the very preface notes that climatic determinism isn’t supported by mainstream historians, that that it does create conditions for what has happened, like the change of air movement: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a seesaw of atmospheric pressure between a persistent high over the Azores and an equally prevalent low over Iceland. In 1315 in led to heavy rains in Europe, so that French king Louis X planned a military campaign into Flanders, to isolate the rebellious Flemings from their North Sea ports and lucrative export trade. His invasion force was poised at the border before the Flemish army, ready to advance in the heavy rain. But as the French cavalry trotted onto the saturated plain, their horses sank into the ground up to their saddle girths. Wagons bogged down in the mire so deeply that even seven horses could not move them. The infantry stood knee-deep in boggy fields and shivered in their rain-flooded tents. Food ran short, so Louis X retreated ignominiously.
A large share of chapters look like a collection of working papers on specific aspects of the Little Ice Age, from pre-cold growing vineyards in modern Britain, to cod fishing, to changes of land use, settlement and abandonment of Greenland, Irish Famine and many more.
It mentions several interesting methods of determining what climate was before data on pressure, temperature, rain etc., was collected. I knew several, like measurements of ice on mountains and poles, yearly rounds of trees… there are a few unusual ones, from data on gathering grapes and yields to such unique ones as Hans Neuberger studied the clouds shown in 6,500 paintings completed between 1400 and 1967 from forty-one art museums in the United States and Europe.
The book is informative and a good overview. However, it has a huge drawback: climate is a global phenomenon, but the author mostly works with Western Europe, British Isles and North America. For example, Poland or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth never mentioned (it mentions Baltic ports exporting grain, but never where they got it). It doesn’t mention Ottomans; mentions of India, China and russia are few (and it is more of their current territories, for none of these states existed back then)
The book in the very preface notes that climatic determinism isn’t supported by mainstream historians, that that it does create conditions for what has happened, like the change of air movement: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is a seesaw of atmospheric pressure between a persistent high over the Azores and an equally prevalent low over Iceland. In 1315 in led to heavy rains in Europe, so that French king Louis X planned a military campaign into Flanders, to isolate the rebellious Flemings from their North Sea ports and lucrative export trade. His invasion force was poised at the border before the Flemish army, ready to advance in the heavy rain. But as the French cavalry trotted onto the saturated plain, their horses sank into the ground up to their saddle girths. Wagons bogged down in the mire so deeply that even seven horses could not move them. The infantry stood knee-deep in boggy fields and shivered in their rain-flooded tents. Food ran short, so Louis X retreated ignominiously.
A large share of chapters look like a collection of working papers on specific aspects of the Little Ice Age, from pre-cold growing vineyards in modern Britain, to cod fishing, to changes of land use, settlement and abandonment of Greenland, Irish Famine and many more.
It mentions several interesting methods of determining what climate was before data on pressure, temperature, rain etc., was collected. I knew several, like measurements of ice on mountains and poles, yearly rounds of trees… there are a few unusual ones, from data on gathering grapes and yields to such unique ones as Hans Neuberger studied the clouds shown in 6,500 paintings completed between 1400 and 1967 from forty-one art museums in the United States and Europe.
The book is informative and a good overview. However, it has a huge drawback: climate is a global phenomenon, but the author mostly works with Western Europe, British Isles and North America. For example, Poland or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth never mentioned (it mentions Baltic ports exporting grain, but never where they got it). It doesn’t mention Ottomans; mentions of India, China and russia are few (and it is more of their current territories, for none of these states existed back then)
April 24, 2020
This year has not been good for reading so far. At first for good reasons (buying a house), then for bad reasons (fighting the coronavirus). This is why it took me a few months to finish this book, even though it's not overly long, and not at all boring. As it was written by an academic who is neither a professional historian nor an expert in climate sciences, there are some simplifications and at times too far-fetched assumptions throughout the text, but these are very common features in pop-science literature, unavoidable to a certain extent. The book guides the reader through the history of human struggles with climatic phenomena and the heavy toll that usually follows. As it was written in the late 1990s and published in 2000, the final warning against the human-made climate crisis does not sound very strong. In the afterword to the second edition (2019) the Author admits that the warning was not strong enough as the book was written 'in the Middle Ages' of climatology.
December 3, 2019
This book was worth the time and should be a reference warning.
March 23, 2015
I like to think that I know a lot about history. Periodically, authors like Brian Fagan teach me how much more there is to know. This book is bursting with information about how the Medieval period I thought I understood,was formed and influenced by factors I didn't know or didn't understand. Let's start with style. Fagan is a dynamic writer. He moves his narrative along swiftly and surely like a championship skier on a difficult downhill. We get the thrills and not the spills. When I say thrills, I mean it. He makes history vivid and lively, taking us into the lives of ordinary people. He patiently reduces complex and difficult ideas into baby-step illustrations that non-scientists can understand, but he doesn't talk down to his readers. It takes real skill to write a book for the general reading public. We aren't specialists, but we don't want to have the author treat us like morons either. Fagan manages this feat with grace and wit.
Fagan tells us of a Europe that had benefited from several hundred years of clement weather, expanding agriculture and having more children as a result. By the late 1200's, the land had reached its carrying capacity. The continent was set for disaster and sadly it got one. The weather began to change. Later historians and Climatologists would call it the Little Ice Age, but the folk of the times called it floods, ice, famine and the wrath of God. Crops failed several times in the fist half of the 1300's and then in 1347, the hammer came down. A dreadful disease,(they called it a pest)spread pitilessly and surely through an already weakened populace. People watched in horror as their friends and families sickened and died so swiftly that they might be well at breakfast and dead before nightfall. To repeat a famous phrase, a third of the world died.
Changes in climate set us up for changes in the way we live in the world. What we eat, wear, do for a living, enjoy in our leisure time, all these depend on weather, and weather is climate made local and intimate. The world Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about was ancestral to the world we live in. Climate is vital and we ignore it at our peril. Brian Fagan has a lot to teach us and we NEED TO LISTEN!
Fagan tells us of a Europe that had benefited from several hundred years of clement weather, expanding agriculture and having more children as a result. By the late 1200's, the land had reached its carrying capacity. The continent was set for disaster and sadly it got one. The weather began to change. Later historians and Climatologists would call it the Little Ice Age, but the folk of the times called it floods, ice, famine and the wrath of God. Crops failed several times in the fist half of the 1300's and then in 1347, the hammer came down. A dreadful disease,(they called it a pest)spread pitilessly and surely through an already weakened populace. People watched in horror as their friends and families sickened and died so swiftly that they might be well at breakfast and dead before nightfall. To repeat a famous phrase, a third of the world died.
Changes in climate set us up for changes in the way we live in the world. What we eat, wear, do for a living, enjoy in our leisure time, all these depend on weather, and weather is climate made local and intimate. The world Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about was ancestral to the world we live in. Climate is vital and we ignore it at our peril. Brian Fagan has a lot to teach us and we NEED TO LISTEN!
January 7, 2017
_The Little Ice Age_ by Brian Fagan is a fascinating, very readable, and well researched book on the science and history of a particular period of climatic history, the "Little Ice Age," which lasted approximately from 1300 to 1850. Despite the name, the Little Ice Age (a term coined by glacial geologist Francois Matthes in 1939, a term he used in a very informal way and without capitalized letters) was not a time of unrelenting cold. Rather, it was an era of dramatic climatic shifts, cycles of intensely cold winters and easterly winds alternating with periods of heavy spring and early summer rains, mild winters, and frequent and often devastating Atlantic storms as well as periods of droughts, light northeasterly winds, and intense summer heat. The Little Ice Age was "an endless zigzag of climatic shifts," few lasting more than 25 years or so.
Nevertheless the climate of the time proved difficult and overall was uniformly cooler, often considerably so, than the time before and afterwards. The Little Ice Age was an era when there used to be winter fairs on the frozen River Thames during the time of King Charles II, one that produced the great gales that devastated the Spanish Armada in 1588, was when George Washington's Continental Army endured a brutal winter in Valley Forge in 1777-1778, when pack ice surrounded Iceland for much of the year, when Alpine glaciers destroyed villages and advanced kilometers from their present positions, when hundreds of poor died of hypothermia regularly every winter in London late into the 19th century. It was also a time of massive rainy periods, such as the immense rains of 1315 and 1316 that helped stop the armies of French King Louis X from crushing the rebellious Flemings and produced an immense famine as crops couldn't survive the near unending rain.
Piecing together the climatic history of the Little Ice Age has been a challenge, one that required a multidisciplinary approach. Fagan recounted how reliable instrument records only go back a few centuries and then primarily only for Europe and North America. Researchers have instead relied on information obtained from tree rings, ice cores, lake and marine bottom sediment cores, wine harvest records, analysis of the weather portrayed in art of the period, and anecdotal written records of country clergymen and gentleman scientists to piece together what the weather was like during the time period.
Although the causes of the Little Ice Age are not completely understood, much of it had to do with the actions of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a "seesaw" of atmospheric pressure between a persistent high over the Azores and an equally prevalent low over Iceland. Using charts and maps, Fagan showed how the NAO governs the position and strength of the North Atlantic storm track and thus Europe's rainfall. The NAO index shows the constant shifts in the oscillation between these two areas, with a high NAO index indicating low pressure around Iceland and high pressure in the Azores, a condition producing westerly winds, powerful storms, more summer rains, mild winters, and dry conditions in southern Europe. A low NAO index signaled high pressure around Iceland, low pressure in the Azores, weaker westerlies, much colder winters, with cold air flowing from the north and east. The exact reasons for the shifts in the NAO result from a complex interaction between sea-surface temperatures, the Gulf Stream, distribution of sea ice, and solar energy output. Additionally, several massive volcanic eruptions had an effect on the climate of the time, notably Soufriere on Saint Vincent in the Caribbean in 1812, Mayon in the Philippines in 1814, and the titanic Tambora eruption in Indonesia in 1815 (the latter with one hundred times the ash output of Mount Saint Helens).
The author noted that placing the climatic events of the Little Ice Age in a proper context in terms of human history has been subject to some debate. Many archaeologists and historians are suspicious of environmental determinism, of the notion that climate change alone was the reason for such major developments as agriculture or a particular war. However, others had felt that climate had played very little or no role in human history, and that Fagan completely rejects, primarily because throughout the Little Ice Age (even as late as the 19th century), millions of European peasants lived at the subsistence level, their survival dependent totally upon crop yields, generally what they themselves grew on land they owned or rented. It was centuries before even parts of Europe (at first the Netherlands and Britain) developed modern specialized commercial agriculture (with intensive farming and growing of nitrogen-enriching plants and animal fodder on previously fallow land) and reasonably reliable transportation networks to distribute food to larger areas. During most of Europe for the Little Ice Age, cycles of good and bad harvests, of cooler and wetter springs, meant the difference between hunger and plenty. This sufficiency or insufficiency of food was a powerful motivator for human action. Fagan wrote that while environmental determinism may be "intellectually bankrupt," climate change is the "ignored player on the historical stage."
Fagan recounted several times when the climate of the Little Ice Age played an important role in the historical events of the time. For instance while Flanders and the Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and England in Stuart times really began to modernize agriculture, little innovation occurred in France, with late eighteenth century French agriculture very little different from medieval agriculture, leaving millions of poor farmers and city dwellers at the edge of starvation and at the mercy of the vagaries of climate. While the decision to not modernize rested in the hands of the nobility (who were uninterested) and in the peasants (who were often deeply suspicious of change and wedded to tradition), it was the climatic events of the late eighteen century that lead to the awful harvest of 1788, the politicization of the rural poor, and the path to the French Revolution.
Nevertheless the climate of the time proved difficult and overall was uniformly cooler, often considerably so, than the time before and afterwards. The Little Ice Age was an era when there used to be winter fairs on the frozen River Thames during the time of King Charles II, one that produced the great gales that devastated the Spanish Armada in 1588, was when George Washington's Continental Army endured a brutal winter in Valley Forge in 1777-1778, when pack ice surrounded Iceland for much of the year, when Alpine glaciers destroyed villages and advanced kilometers from their present positions, when hundreds of poor died of hypothermia regularly every winter in London late into the 19th century. It was also a time of massive rainy periods, such as the immense rains of 1315 and 1316 that helped stop the armies of French King Louis X from crushing the rebellious Flemings and produced an immense famine as crops couldn't survive the near unending rain.
Piecing together the climatic history of the Little Ice Age has been a challenge, one that required a multidisciplinary approach. Fagan recounted how reliable instrument records only go back a few centuries and then primarily only for Europe and North America. Researchers have instead relied on information obtained from tree rings, ice cores, lake and marine bottom sediment cores, wine harvest records, analysis of the weather portrayed in art of the period, and anecdotal written records of country clergymen and gentleman scientists to piece together what the weather was like during the time period.
Although the causes of the Little Ice Age are not completely understood, much of it had to do with the actions of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), a "seesaw" of atmospheric pressure between a persistent high over the Azores and an equally prevalent low over Iceland. Using charts and maps, Fagan showed how the NAO governs the position and strength of the North Atlantic storm track and thus Europe's rainfall. The NAO index shows the constant shifts in the oscillation between these two areas, with a high NAO index indicating low pressure around Iceland and high pressure in the Azores, a condition producing westerly winds, powerful storms, more summer rains, mild winters, and dry conditions in southern Europe. A low NAO index signaled high pressure around Iceland, low pressure in the Azores, weaker westerlies, much colder winters, with cold air flowing from the north and east. The exact reasons for the shifts in the NAO result from a complex interaction between sea-surface temperatures, the Gulf Stream, distribution of sea ice, and solar energy output. Additionally, several massive volcanic eruptions had an effect on the climate of the time, notably Soufriere on Saint Vincent in the Caribbean in 1812, Mayon in the Philippines in 1814, and the titanic Tambora eruption in Indonesia in 1815 (the latter with one hundred times the ash output of Mount Saint Helens).
The author noted that placing the climatic events of the Little Ice Age in a proper context in terms of human history has been subject to some debate. Many archaeologists and historians are suspicious of environmental determinism, of the notion that climate change alone was the reason for such major developments as agriculture or a particular war. However, others had felt that climate had played very little or no role in human history, and that Fagan completely rejects, primarily because throughout the Little Ice Age (even as late as the 19th century), millions of European peasants lived at the subsistence level, their survival dependent totally upon crop yields, generally what they themselves grew on land they owned or rented. It was centuries before even parts of Europe (at first the Netherlands and Britain) developed modern specialized commercial agriculture (with intensive farming and growing of nitrogen-enriching plants and animal fodder on previously fallow land) and reasonably reliable transportation networks to distribute food to larger areas. During most of Europe for the Little Ice Age, cycles of good and bad harvests, of cooler and wetter springs, meant the difference between hunger and plenty. This sufficiency or insufficiency of food was a powerful motivator for human action. Fagan wrote that while environmental determinism may be "intellectually bankrupt," climate change is the "ignored player on the historical stage."
Fagan recounted several times when the climate of the Little Ice Age played an important role in the historical events of the time. For instance while Flanders and the Netherlands in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and England in Stuart times really began to modernize agriculture, little innovation occurred in France, with late eighteenth century French agriculture very little different from medieval agriculture, leaving millions of poor farmers and city dwellers at the edge of starvation and at the mercy of the vagaries of climate. While the decision to not modernize rested in the hands of the nobility (who were uninterested) and in the peasants (who were often deeply suspicious of change and wedded to tradition), it was the climatic events of the late eighteen century that lead to the awful harvest of 1788, the politicization of the rural poor, and the path to the French Revolution.
May 15, 2022
Когда книга ждала своей очереди в твоём листе лет пять и вот, наконец, дождалась. Довольно увлекательное исследование про колебания климата и как они влияют на исторические события (а также ответ всем интересующимся на вопрос «если у нас глобальное потепление, то почему зимы такие холодные»).
April 20, 2023
Ameno y entretenido. Se deja leer muy bien.
May 12, 2019
Though I often did not follow his technical ideas, I still gave this book 5 stars because, after the many books I've read about history, none of them credited climate for its huge effects. Only individual weather events on occasion, like the Russian winter that defeated Napoleon and Hitler. But not climate. This was the first that went into any depth. It was like a giant puzzle piece finally falling into place.
Of course everyone knows about the potato blight in Ireland, but I'd never read so much detail about it.
Also, in "John Adams," when Abigail joins her husband in Paris and is shocked at all the beggars... this book explains it.
My only suggestion to the author would be to provide a comparison scale for Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures for us U.S. readers. My calculator was never close at hand, so I had to assume that 38C is pretty hot. Now that I've looked it up, the author was shocked at temp's over 38C which is only about 100F -- that temp is pretty common in the summer where I live.
I see this author has written many other books. I will look for them.
Of course everyone knows about the potato blight in Ireland, but I'd never read so much detail about it.
Also, in "John Adams," when Abigail joins her husband in Paris and is shocked at all the beggars... this book explains it.
My only suggestion to the author would be to provide a comparison scale for Celsius and Fahrenheit temperatures for us U.S. readers. My calculator was never close at hand, so I had to assume that 38C is pretty hot. Now that I've looked it up, the author was shocked at temp's over 38C which is only about 100F -- that temp is pretty common in the summer where I live.
I see this author has written many other books. I will look for them.
August 31, 2019
1) My god what a book.
2) My god what a book.
3) My god what a book.
I picked up The Little Ice Age because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve read by Brian Fagan and this book keeps me enjoying his work. It’s a wonderful read that’s just the other side of popsci; it may be too fact&figure rich for some readers. However, it’s a storehouse of information for historians, climatologists, cultural anthropologists, economists, ... Another reason for my reading was research for a project I’m working on. Writers, this is a tremendous resource for filling in historic and cultural details throughout recorded history. Not only that, Fagan is an excellent writer and his phrasing itself is worth the read. There are several times I considered lifting sentences and fragments; remember, good writers copy. Great writers steal.
Truly an excellent resource.
2) My god what a book.
3) My god what a book.
I picked up The Little Ice Age because I’ve thoroughly enjoyed everything I’ve read by Brian Fagan and this book keeps me enjoying his work. It’s a wonderful read that’s just the other side of popsci; it may be too fact&figure rich for some readers. However, it’s a storehouse of information for historians, climatologists, cultural anthropologists, economists, ... Another reason for my reading was research for a project I’m working on. Writers, this is a tremendous resource for filling in historic and cultural details throughout recorded history. Not only that, Fagan is an excellent writer and his phrasing itself is worth the read. There are several times I considered lifting sentences and fragments; remember, good writers copy. Great writers steal.
Truly an excellent resource.
December 6, 2013
A well researched, but definitely biased, look at the interaction between humans and the natural world we inhabit. I felt a little talked down to and manipulated by the direction of the narrative, but the facts are interesting. I just wish he would have left out the diatribe at the end about how global warming was going to do crazy stuff and we aren't doing anything to stop it. It was immature on his part. I think it is much more powerful to let the facts to speak for themselves. I appreciate the curation of historical documents that went into this work. There is something to be learned from this book.
May 20, 2022
Замах на айсберг, удар на сосульку.
В целом, вся история сводится к тому что когда холодно - голодно.
В целом, вся история сводится к тому что когда холодно - голодно.
April 28, 2025
I don’t know enough about climatology for an in-depth criticism — but it felt facile in some of its explanations. And some other reviews I just read have some good points.
If you mostly read it as a history of farming over 5 centuries, and largely disregard the climate science bits, it was pretty interesting.
If you mostly read it as a history of farming over 5 centuries, and largely disregard the climate science bits, it was pretty interesting.
September 3, 2025
Society when it was ever so slightly cold = famines and misery and untold devastation
Society when its the warmest its been in 3 million years = ????
As mr.clearwater so succinctly put it: i see the bad moon rising.
Society when its the warmest its been in 3 million years = ????
As mr.clearwater so succinctly put it: i see the bad moon rising.
June 7, 2025
A really good read. Enjoyable, brief, full of information. The title of the book really says it all. In this work, the author works through what had been loosely defined as "The Little Ice Age", a time period in human history where historic shifts in weather from cold and wet to hot and dry to everything in between caused not only untold human suffering, but also served as a major motivator for the political and social upheaval of the time.
The author spends a large portion of the first section of the book demonstrating, through historical tales alone, the variability of weather and its effects on the people who lived through such events after laying down the technical jargon associated with climatology. He subdivides these accounts into periods of warmth and cold during the Little Ice Age, then compares those periods against major historical events. Through this, he connects changes in climate to the discovery of the Americas by the Vikings. He connects climate to the French Revolution. He connects climate to the Irish potato famine. He connects advances in agriculture in Europe to climate. He connects the rise of industries such as cod fishing to climate. He connects the creation of government intervention plans to changes in climate during the Little Ice Age. In all, he makes a compelling argument that variability in weather was an important motivator for many of these historical events.
He concludes by posing readers with the dilemma of the now: since climate change had such effects, many of which remain a mystery, upon people thousands of years ago, what makes us any different? He discounts the technological improvements of our time by citing that we're more connected than ever. It becomes clear by the conclusion that the author is concerned with climate change, and while I am not an alarmist, he brings up points that shouldn't be ignored. Even with that said, if you disagree completely with his conclusions from history as drawn out to, "How do they apply to us today?", you will still enjoy reading this book simply for the historical breadth of its content. It provides a unique perspective that is invaluable in examining the major motions of history during the medieval and early industrial period. It provides a context that few other history books might. As such, I tentatively give the work a 5/5 (probably really a 4.5).
The author spends a large portion of the first section of the book demonstrating, through historical tales alone, the variability of weather and its effects on the people who lived through such events after laying down the technical jargon associated with climatology. He subdivides these accounts into periods of warmth and cold during the Little Ice Age, then compares those periods against major historical events. Through this, he connects changes in climate to the discovery of the Americas by the Vikings. He connects climate to the French Revolution. He connects climate to the Irish potato famine. He connects advances in agriculture in Europe to climate. He connects the rise of industries such as cod fishing to climate. He connects the creation of government intervention plans to changes in climate during the Little Ice Age. In all, he makes a compelling argument that variability in weather was an important motivator for many of these historical events.
He concludes by posing readers with the dilemma of the now: since climate change had such effects, many of which remain a mystery, upon people thousands of years ago, what makes us any different? He discounts the technological improvements of our time by citing that we're more connected than ever. It becomes clear by the conclusion that the author is concerned with climate change, and while I am not an alarmist, he brings up points that shouldn't be ignored. Even with that said, if you disagree completely with his conclusions from history as drawn out to, "How do they apply to us today?", you will still enjoy reading this book simply for the historical breadth of its content. It provides a unique perspective that is invaluable in examining the major motions of history during the medieval and early industrial period. It provides a context that few other history books might. As such, I tentatively give the work a 5/5 (probably really a 4.5).
October 2, 2019
I write this in a day that we threaten to set all-time warm October temperatures in much of the southeastern U.S. This book was written in 2000 and the final chapter contains the by now familiar warnings about the dangers of a warming climate. Nothing in the past 20 years contradicts those admonitions, as record after record falls and impacts continue to mount. The book itself is a fairly quick, non-scientific account of the so-called 'Little Ice Age'. It does a better job with the socioeconomic impacts and reasons for them than with anything to do with climate science, although there are brief superficial discussions on subjects like the NAO, ice cores, variable sunpsot activity (Maunder and Sporer minimums) and key oceanic circulations. One takeaway is the phenomenal disasters from weather events in past history such as the 'Great Drowning' in Jan. 1362 or the November 1570 flood in the Netherlands. Cannot begin to imagine the hysteria today if 100,000 people died in Europe from a flood. Greta Thunberg's head would probably explode! Droughts and subsequent famines may have been worse. However, even the worst weather events today in the less-developed world have a fraction of the impact of weather in the past. For example, very rare March 2019 southern hemisphere tropical cyclone Idai in southeast Africa 'only' caused 1300 fatalities (no consolation for the victims of course). This book tends to be highly Euro-centric with only occasional anecdotes from other parts of the world, owing probably to the availability of easy source data as much as anything. Overall, this a decent intro or review of the bigger climate picture and a sobering look at how much impact a changing climate (and/or the embedded weather events) have had, and still could have.
January 30, 2016
I recently read Brian Fagan's The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850. It's an odd blend of history and science, and chronicles a long and weary succession of droughts, famines, plagues, and death. Small wonder the Calvinists subscribed to such a vicious god: if I'd lived through these years I'd start to think someone was out to get me, too. Fagan doesn't try to make a case for the age being caused by one thing: although there are meteorological cycles to consider, the timespan was punctuated by volcano eruptions which didn't help things. The evidence Fagan uses ranges from the solid (weather records kept by farmers, monks, and the like) to the more dubious (changes in art, and the church's frequency of "Dear God in Heaven PLEASE STOP WITH THE PESTILENCE BIT" prayers), but Fagan clearly made pains to create a big picture understanding: the most notable illustration in the book is a two page map spread of Europe, which portrays the weather patterns for a particular month and includes references or evidence of the weather that at that time -- rain in Portugal, severe snow in Denmark, and so on. All told, Little Ice Age proved an interesting read, illustrating how quickly the weather can change and how severely it can effect human lives, something I'd hope we're starting to pick up on after the calamities of recent years
April 17, 2009
Technically I did not finish this, since I had to take it back to the library before I could finish the last three chapters, but I did skim them. So, I read this book. In its entirety. Don't try to talk me out of it.
Very informative! It seems that weather gets ignored a lot in history, when weather played a pretty big role in deciding the survival of life itself in the pre-industrial world. The only time it gets mentioned, really, is when it plays a large role in some single struggle, like the wrecking of the Spanish Armada or French knights being killed because their horses got stuck in the mud. Or, heck, the Donner party, though there was some human stupidity involved in that, too. I found it very useful to be able to put historical happenings in the context of their environment. It really has helped me enrich my understanding of the late medieval period. Did you know that there were vineyards in England in the 13th century, prior to the beginning of The Little Ice Age? And that they produced excellent wine? I didn't! Now I do.
At times, it seemed to read like a list of weather disasters and crop failures, but that was all right. This isn't a social history book -- it's a weather history book.
Very informative! It seems that weather gets ignored a lot in history, when weather played a pretty big role in deciding the survival of life itself in the pre-industrial world. The only time it gets mentioned, really, is when it plays a large role in some single struggle, like the wrecking of the Spanish Armada or French knights being killed because their horses got stuck in the mud. Or, heck, the Donner party, though there was some human stupidity involved in that, too. I found it very useful to be able to put historical happenings in the context of their environment. It really has helped me enrich my understanding of the late medieval period. Did you know that there were vineyards in England in the 13th century, prior to the beginning of The Little Ice Age? And that they produced excellent wine? I didn't! Now I do.
At times, it seemed to read like a list of weather disasters and crop failures, but that was all right. This isn't a social history book -- it's a weather history book.
November 7, 2019
And this book is why I usually read books off my verified list and not my unverified list. Boring. Ponderous. Slow. And really doesn't capture what the title is trying to sell. The idea is interesting, but mostly this book just failed to deliver. Unless what you wanted was repetitive retellings of it was cold and wet and people died of hunger and cold, it was warm and dry and people died of hunger.
January 8, 2025
3.5/5
The “Little Ice Age” is a period I find really interesting. Coming out of Classical Times/Ancient History, the earth saw a period of warming, the “Medieval Warm Period”, that allowed Europeans to practice abundant farming, there were regionally famous vineyards in England, and winters became milder on the whole. This was a time culturally where the Europeans needed all the help they could get as Rome had fallen in the west and Europe had fractured into many small kingdoms, cities began to become overgrown, and the stabilizing force of Rome was no longer present in the region. This was ultimately a period of great growth—the Middle Ages have a “dark” reputation, but much of it isn’t fair at all.
However, around the year 1300 the planet began seeing a cooling trend. There were wild storms that began to blow in and crash into the Low Countries. Glaciers in the Alps began advancing towards one-time stable villages. Winters got harsh, crops failed, famines happened, a major war between England and France began, and the Black Death reared its ugly head and killed 30-50% of the population in Europe. Things were changing, and it didn’t look promising. However, despite this, the modern area began during this time and over the next 700 years humans saw the most notable and frankly, amazing, period of growth ever. The climate stayed cooler however, and the Little Ice Age didn’t release its icy grip until the 1900s.
For instance, Charles Dickens grew up in some of England’s coldest decades ever. Big snowfalls were not at all unusual—some years the Thames would completely freeze over and Londoners would hold a Frost Fair on the frozen river. While England can still certainly get cold in winter, it can be hard to imagine it seeing this kind of climate regularly. Charles Dickens not only helped to create our modern view of Christmas, but also became associated with a colder and snowier picture of England.
Soon after, the climate began changing again, and here we are in modern times. The author covers all these periods fantastically, and my favorite parts were the little anecdotes about how the ice age changed everyday life for people living in this period. He went into detail on relatively obscure historical years, and gave us a look in on how this climate affected the peasants and rich alike. While the simple answer of NAOs (being a direct result of changing climate) causing all of these issues may be a bit outdated, the historical information here is fantastic, and if you’re going to read this book I think it’s better to read for the historical information than for much of the author’s insight on the climactic cause itself. No doubt history buffs will enjoy the information here, especially if you’re interested in Europe over the past millennium—he does cover some other parts of the globe, but no doubt Europe is the main focus.
I had a good time with this one, and appreciate the historical insight I’ve gained from reading.
The “Little Ice Age” is a period I find really interesting. Coming out of Classical Times/Ancient History, the earth saw a period of warming, the “Medieval Warm Period”, that allowed Europeans to practice abundant farming, there were regionally famous vineyards in England, and winters became milder on the whole. This was a time culturally where the Europeans needed all the help they could get as Rome had fallen in the west and Europe had fractured into many small kingdoms, cities began to become overgrown, and the stabilizing force of Rome was no longer present in the region. This was ultimately a period of great growth—the Middle Ages have a “dark” reputation, but much of it isn’t fair at all.
However, around the year 1300 the planet began seeing a cooling trend. There were wild storms that began to blow in and crash into the Low Countries. Glaciers in the Alps began advancing towards one-time stable villages. Winters got harsh, crops failed, famines happened, a major war between England and France began, and the Black Death reared its ugly head and killed 30-50% of the population in Europe. Things were changing, and it didn’t look promising. However, despite this, the modern area began during this time and over the next 700 years humans saw the most notable and frankly, amazing, period of growth ever. The climate stayed cooler however, and the Little Ice Age didn’t release its icy grip until the 1900s.
For instance, Charles Dickens grew up in some of England’s coldest decades ever. Big snowfalls were not at all unusual—some years the Thames would completely freeze over and Londoners would hold a Frost Fair on the frozen river. While England can still certainly get cold in winter, it can be hard to imagine it seeing this kind of climate regularly. Charles Dickens not only helped to create our modern view of Christmas, but also became associated with a colder and snowier picture of England.
Soon after, the climate began changing again, and here we are in modern times. The author covers all these periods fantastically, and my favorite parts were the little anecdotes about how the ice age changed everyday life for people living in this period. He went into detail on relatively obscure historical years, and gave us a look in on how this climate affected the peasants and rich alike. While the simple answer of NAOs (being a direct result of changing climate) causing all of these issues may be a bit outdated, the historical information here is fantastic, and if you’re going to read this book I think it’s better to read for the historical information than for much of the author’s insight on the climactic cause itself. No doubt history buffs will enjoy the information here, especially if you’re interested in Europe over the past millennium—he does cover some other parts of the globe, but no doubt Europe is the main focus.
I had a good time with this one, and appreciate the historical insight I’ve gained from reading.
March 22, 2015
Once upon a time, Brian Fagan became curious about how history has been shaped by climate. He did a remarkable amount of research, and then delivered a fascinating and very readable book, The Little Ice Age. Mainstream history tends to focus on rulers, empires, wars, and technology, providing us with a pinhole perspective on ages past. Fagan used a wide angle lens, and revealed how the miserable peasantry of Europe struggled to survive in a world of daffy rulers, steamroller epidemics, wildly erratic weather, and the ever-present threat of famine — a highly insecure existence in a world with no safety nets, and brief life expectancy.
Most of our detailed, regularly recorded weather data is less than 200 years old. Older writings made note of climate conditions, times of prosperity, famines, plagues, and natural disasters. More recently, we’ve discovered that tree rings and ice cores can provide climate information going back thousands of years. The annual rings in tree trunks are thicker in ideal weather and thinner in lean years. The annual layers of ice in glaciers are thicker in cold years, and thinner in warm ones. In this way, climate leaves a fingerprint pattern that we can decode. Ice also preserves ash residue, marking volcanic activity, which can have significant effects on weather.
While climate can vary from year to year, and day to day, modern climate science has discovered broader trends in weather patterns. Fagan examined three trends: the Medieval Warm Period (900-1200), the Little Ice Age (1300-1850), and the warming trend of the fossil-fuelled industrial era.
In northern Europe, the years between 800 and 1200 were the warmest period in the last 8,000 years. There were vineyards in England. Generous grain harvests fed a population explosion, which naturally triggered a rash of bloody conflicts. Because of the warm weather, sea levels rose between 1000 and 1200, creating challenges for the lowlanders. “At least 100,000 people died along the Dutch and German coasts in four fierce storm surges in about 1200, 1212-1219, 1287, and 1362.”
The kickoff for the Little Ice Age came in 1315, when it rained almost continuously from May to August. Fields became lakes or knee-deep mud. Floods erased entire villages. Wars had to be cancelled. The population, which had exploded between 1100 and 1300, now had to share a puny harvest, if any.
The survivors eagerly awaited a return to normal weather in 1316, but rains resumed in the spring. Livestock diminished, crops failed, prices rose, and the roads were jammed with wandering beggars. Many villages were abandoned. People dined on pigeon dung, dogs, cats, and the corpses of diseased cattle (rumors of cannibalism). By the spring of 1317, they had eaten their seeds, and had few oxen to plow with. The rains returned. There were seven years of bad harvests, creating steady employment for gravediggers.
For the next 550 years, the weather got colder, and there were more storms. Frigid spells might last a season or a decade. Cold weather was extreme from 1680 to 1700. London trees froze and split open, and the Thames was covered with thick ice. Chilly summers led to poor harvests from 1687 to 1692. You could walk across the ice from Denmark to Sweden in the winter of 1708-09. The All Saints Flood of November 1570 submerged the Dutch lowlands, drowning 100,000.
This book is jammed with stories of weather-related problems — floods, droughts, crop failures, epidemics, famines, and food riots. Most people struggled to survive via subsistence farming, using primitive technology. Most didn’t have enough land for livestock, which meant little manure for fertilizer. Under ideal conditions on prime land, planting a bushel of wheat would produce just four or five bushels at harvest time. Because of this low productivity, feeding society required the labor of nine out of ten people. Famine was common, and food relief was rare. “Even in the best of times, rural life was unrelentingly harsh.” “Farm laborers lived in extraordinary squalor….”
Fagan’s tales reinforced my dislike of agriculture. It fuels overpopulation, converts healthy wild ecosystems into wreckage, enslaves plants and animals, and requires inequality and brutality. It is proprietary — all the big juicy melons in that field belong to my group, and our field is strictly off-limits to any other creature. This is the opposite of nature’s way, in which a big juicy melon is fair game for one and all, finders keepers.
Private property turns humans and societies into obnoxious two-year olds — “that’s MY melon!” Possessions become objects of wealth, power, and status. If I steal your horse, then its power becomes mine. In the insatiable pursuit of wealth, people will lie to your face, snatch your purse, cut your throat, bomb cities into ashtrays, and destroy entire planets. You can’t farm without warriors to protect the real estate, livestock, and granaries, and you can’t control warriors without hard-fisted leaders.
The legions of hungry dirty peasants who produced the wealth were expendable, and lived in a manner that none of us would tolerate — while the lords gaily feasted. “Excavations of medieval cemeteries paint a horrifying picture of health problems resulting from brutal work regimes. Spinal deformations from the hard labor of plowing, hefting heavy grain bags, and scything the harvest are commonplace. Arthritis affected nearly all adults. Most adult fisherfolk suffered agonizing osteoarthritis of the spine from years of heavy boatwork and hard work ashore.”
Today, our lives are unnaturally soft and cozy. We exist in a “luxurious” unhealthy cocoon created by a temporary bubble of abundant energy. The shelves at the store are always full, a wonderland of easy calories. We have no memories of the hellish life of muscle-powered organic agriculture. We have forgotten how recently our ancestors died from famines and pestilence. As the cost and scarcity of energy increases, our bubble will surely pop.
Fagan gives us an eye-opening preview of what life is likely to look like when the fossil fuel bubble becomes the subject of scary old fairy tales (The Big Bad Consumer). As our miraculous machines run out of fuel, we will have no choice but to slip and slide into a muscle-powered future, which will be anything but unnaturally soft and cozy.
He also warns us that climate change is often not smooth and gentle. History is full of sudden catastrophic shifts. Despite our whiz-bang technology, and hordes of scientists, climate shifts remain beyond our control. We will experience whatever nature decides to serve us — even if we exercised our famous big brains, and permanently stopped every machine today. Climate was a persistent threat to agriculture-based societies long before coal mining was invented, because agriculture had far more vulnerabilities than benefits.
This book provides vital information for those struggling to envision a sustainable future based on organic agriculture. Ideally, enlightened humans will deliberately keep the transition to muscle-powered organic agriculture as brief as possible, whilst devoting immense wisdom to the essential goals of full-speed population reduction and rewilding. There is nothing finer than a sustainable way of life. All other paths lead to oblivion.
Most of our detailed, regularly recorded weather data is less than 200 years old. Older writings made note of climate conditions, times of prosperity, famines, plagues, and natural disasters. More recently, we’ve discovered that tree rings and ice cores can provide climate information going back thousands of years. The annual rings in tree trunks are thicker in ideal weather and thinner in lean years. The annual layers of ice in glaciers are thicker in cold years, and thinner in warm ones. In this way, climate leaves a fingerprint pattern that we can decode. Ice also preserves ash residue, marking volcanic activity, which can have significant effects on weather.
While climate can vary from year to year, and day to day, modern climate science has discovered broader trends in weather patterns. Fagan examined three trends: the Medieval Warm Period (900-1200), the Little Ice Age (1300-1850), and the warming trend of the fossil-fuelled industrial era.
In northern Europe, the years between 800 and 1200 were the warmest period in the last 8,000 years. There were vineyards in England. Generous grain harvests fed a population explosion, which naturally triggered a rash of bloody conflicts. Because of the warm weather, sea levels rose between 1000 and 1200, creating challenges for the lowlanders. “At least 100,000 people died along the Dutch and German coasts in four fierce storm surges in about 1200, 1212-1219, 1287, and 1362.”
The kickoff for the Little Ice Age came in 1315, when it rained almost continuously from May to August. Fields became lakes or knee-deep mud. Floods erased entire villages. Wars had to be cancelled. The population, which had exploded between 1100 and 1300, now had to share a puny harvest, if any.
The survivors eagerly awaited a return to normal weather in 1316, but rains resumed in the spring. Livestock diminished, crops failed, prices rose, and the roads were jammed with wandering beggars. Many villages were abandoned. People dined on pigeon dung, dogs, cats, and the corpses of diseased cattle (rumors of cannibalism). By the spring of 1317, they had eaten their seeds, and had few oxen to plow with. The rains returned. There were seven years of bad harvests, creating steady employment for gravediggers.
For the next 550 years, the weather got colder, and there were more storms. Frigid spells might last a season or a decade. Cold weather was extreme from 1680 to 1700. London trees froze and split open, and the Thames was covered with thick ice. Chilly summers led to poor harvests from 1687 to 1692. You could walk across the ice from Denmark to Sweden in the winter of 1708-09. The All Saints Flood of November 1570 submerged the Dutch lowlands, drowning 100,000.
This book is jammed with stories of weather-related problems — floods, droughts, crop failures, epidemics, famines, and food riots. Most people struggled to survive via subsistence farming, using primitive technology. Most didn’t have enough land for livestock, which meant little manure for fertilizer. Under ideal conditions on prime land, planting a bushel of wheat would produce just four or five bushels at harvest time. Because of this low productivity, feeding society required the labor of nine out of ten people. Famine was common, and food relief was rare. “Even in the best of times, rural life was unrelentingly harsh.” “Farm laborers lived in extraordinary squalor….”
Fagan’s tales reinforced my dislike of agriculture. It fuels overpopulation, converts healthy wild ecosystems into wreckage, enslaves plants and animals, and requires inequality and brutality. It is proprietary — all the big juicy melons in that field belong to my group, and our field is strictly off-limits to any other creature. This is the opposite of nature’s way, in which a big juicy melon is fair game for one and all, finders keepers.
Private property turns humans and societies into obnoxious two-year olds — “that’s MY melon!” Possessions become objects of wealth, power, and status. If I steal your horse, then its power becomes mine. In the insatiable pursuit of wealth, people will lie to your face, snatch your purse, cut your throat, bomb cities into ashtrays, and destroy entire planets. You can’t farm without warriors to protect the real estate, livestock, and granaries, and you can’t control warriors without hard-fisted leaders.
The legions of hungry dirty peasants who produced the wealth were expendable, and lived in a manner that none of us would tolerate — while the lords gaily feasted. “Excavations of medieval cemeteries paint a horrifying picture of health problems resulting from brutal work regimes. Spinal deformations from the hard labor of plowing, hefting heavy grain bags, and scything the harvest are commonplace. Arthritis affected nearly all adults. Most adult fisherfolk suffered agonizing osteoarthritis of the spine from years of heavy boatwork and hard work ashore.”
Today, our lives are unnaturally soft and cozy. We exist in a “luxurious” unhealthy cocoon created by a temporary bubble of abundant energy. The shelves at the store are always full, a wonderland of easy calories. We have no memories of the hellish life of muscle-powered organic agriculture. We have forgotten how recently our ancestors died from famines and pestilence. As the cost and scarcity of energy increases, our bubble will surely pop.
Fagan gives us an eye-opening preview of what life is likely to look like when the fossil fuel bubble becomes the subject of scary old fairy tales (The Big Bad Consumer). As our miraculous machines run out of fuel, we will have no choice but to slip and slide into a muscle-powered future, which will be anything but unnaturally soft and cozy.
He also warns us that climate change is often not smooth and gentle. History is full of sudden catastrophic shifts. Despite our whiz-bang technology, and hordes of scientists, climate shifts remain beyond our control. We will experience whatever nature decides to serve us — even if we exercised our famous big brains, and permanently stopped every machine today. Climate was a persistent threat to agriculture-based societies long before coal mining was invented, because agriculture had far more vulnerabilities than benefits.
This book provides vital information for those struggling to envision a sustainable future based on organic agriculture. Ideally, enlightened humans will deliberately keep the transition to muscle-powered organic agriculture as brief as possible, whilst devoting immense wisdom to the essential goals of full-speed population reduction and rewilding. There is nothing finer than a sustainable way of life. All other paths lead to oblivion.
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