The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History

Description

This handbook offers the first comprehensive, state-of-the-field guide to past weather and climate and their role in human societies. Bringing together dozens of international specialists from the sciences and humanities, this volume describes the methods, sources, and major findings of historical climate reconstruction and impact research. Its chapters take the reader through each key source of past climate and weather information and each technique of analysis; through each historical period and region of the world; through the major topics of climate and history and core case studies; and finally through the history of climate ideas and science. Using clear, non-technical language, The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History serves as a textbook for students, a reference guide for specialists and an introduction to climate history for scholars and interested readers. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxv General Introduction: Weather, Climate, and Human History (Christian Pfister, Sam White, Franz Mauelshagen)....Pages 1-17 Front Matter ....Pages 19-19 The Global Climate System (Eduardo Zorita, Sebastian Wagner, Fredrik Schenk)....Pages 21-26 Archives of Nature and Archives of Societies (Stefan Brönnimann, Christian Pfister, Sam White)....Pages 27-36 Evidence from the Archives of Societies: Documentary Evidence—Overview (Christian Pfister)....Pages 37-47 Evidence from the Archives of Societies: Personal Documentary Sources (Christian Pfister, Sam White)....Pages 49-65 Evidence from the Archives of Societies: Institutional Sources (Christian Pfister)....Pages 67-81 Evidence from the Archives of Societies: Early Instrumental Observations (Dario Camuffo)....Pages 83-92 Evidence from the Archives of Societies: Historical Sources in Glaciology (Samuel U. Nussbaumer, Heinz J. Zumbühl)....Pages 93-97 Analysis and Interpretation: Homogenization of Instrumental Data (Ingeborg Auer)....Pages 99-105 Analysis and Interpretation: Calibration-Verification (Petr Dobrovolný)....Pages 107-113 Analysis and Interpretation: Temperature and Precipitation Indices (Christian Pfister, Chantal Camenisch, Petr Dobrovolný)....Pages 115-129 Analysis and Interpretation: Spatial Climate Field Reconstructions (Jürg Luterbacher, Eduardo Zorita)....Pages 131-139 Analysis and Interpretation: Modeling of Past Climates (Eduardo Zorita, Sebastian Wagner)....Pages 141-148 The Denial of Global Warming (Naomi Oreskes, Erik Conway, David J. Karoly, Joelle Gergis, Urs Neu, Christian Pfister)....Pages 149-171 Front Matter ....Pages 173-173 The Holocene (John L. Brooke)....Pages 175-182 Mediterranean Antiquity (Peregrine Horden)....Pages 183-188 China: 2000 Years of Climate Reconstruction from Historical Documents (Quansheng Ge, Zhixin Hao, Jingyun Zheng, Yang Liu)....Pages 189-201 Climate History of Asia (Excluding China) (George C. D. Adamson, David J. Nash)....Pages 203-211 Climate History in Latin America (María del Rosario Prieto, Facundo Rojas)....Pages 213-224 A Multi-Century History of Drought and Wetter Conditions in Africa (Sharon E. Nicholson)....Pages 225-236 Recent Developments in Australian Climate History (Joëlle Gergis, Linden Ashcroft, Don Garden)....Pages 237-245 European Middle Ages (Christian Rohr, Chantal Camenisch, Kathleen Pribyl)....Pages 247-263 Early Modern Europe (Christian Pfister, Rudolf Brázdil, Jürg Luterbacher, Astrid E. J. Ogilvie, Sam White)....Pages 265-295 North American Climate History (1500–1800) (Sam White)....Pages 297-308 Climate from 1800 to 1970 in North America and Europe (Stefan Brönnimann, Sam White, Victoria Slonosky)....Pages 309-320 Global Warming (1970–Present) (Stefan Brönnimann)....Pages 321-328 Front Matter ....Pages 329-329 Climate, Weather, Agriculture, and Food (Sam White, John Brooke, Christian Pfister)....Pages 331-353 Climate, Ecology, and Infectious Human Disease (James L. A. Webb)....Pages 355-365 Climate Change and Conflict (Dagomar Degroot)....Pages 367-385 Narrating Indigenous Histories of Climate Change in the Americas and Pacific (Thomas Wickman)....Pages 387-411 Migration and Climate in World History (Franz Mauelshagen)....Pages 413-444 Front Matter ....Pages 445-445 The Climate Downturn of 536–50 (Timothy P. Newfield)....Pages 447-493 The 1310s Event (Philip Slavin)....Pages 495-515 The 1780s: Global Climate Anomalies, Floods, Droughts, and Famines (Vinita Damodaran, Rob Allan, Astrid E. J. Ogilvie, Gaston R. Demarée, Joëlle Gergis, Takehiko Mikami et al.)....Pages 517-550 A Year Without a Summer, 1816 (Christian Pfister, Sam White)....Pages 551-561 Front Matter ....Pages 563-563 Climate as a Scientific Paradigm—Early History of Climatology to 1800 (Franz Mauelshagen)....Pages 565-588 Climate and Empire in the Nineteenth Century (Ruth A. Morgan)....Pages 589-603 From Climatology to Climate Science in the Twentieth Century (Matthias Heymann, Dania Achermann)....Pages 605-632 Back Matter ....Pages 633-656