The Little Ice Age cover art

The Little Ice Age

How Climate Made History 1300-1850

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

The Little Ice Age

By: Brian Fagan
Narrated by: Michael Langan
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £13.92

Buy Now for £13.92

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

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

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

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

©2020 Brian Fagan (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing Anthropology Atmospheric Science Earth Sciences Environment Science
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
All stars
Most relevant
I had come across the mini ice age previously in other books on the medieval world, and although it touched on the subject the details were lacking. so this book proved to be the indepth window into the subject I'd been missing. Very well researched and covers every aspect of the causes and impacts . Fab book.

history, geography, meteorology, sociology, economics and epidemiology all in one book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
interesting to hear, cause we can understand the climate Change and ITS cause. really enlightend.

detailed information related to the past climate

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a great book, with a detailed examination of the interplay between climate and societal changes over the last 500 years. However it is let down by poor narration, with unusual pronunciation and accenting of words, and the same cadence for every sentence. This makes the book very hard to listen to, and in future I’ll avoid books narrated by Michael Langan.

Informative book; terrible narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well-narrated (other than a slip or two in pronunciation.

The content is excellent, sufficient detail to satisfy or prompt further research, while moving at sufficuent pace as to remain interesting and engaging.

Clear and concise

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book was quite a tough listen.
The narrator seemed to spend his time talking in an unusual sing-song way, emphasising certain consonants and constantly changing the register of his voice.

As for the content, the book was supposed to be about the Little Ice Age, but spends a large part of the time discussing different periods in history.

A wealth of assumptions are given to the listener, along with some openly contradictory assertions.

The author is a geologist yet makes a number of unsupported claims about climate ”science”.

I’m glad this book was free. I’d have requested a refund otherwise.

Interesting assumptions

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews