Customer Reviews

Blame It on the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History

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Good history is hard to find. For example, did you know?

--At one point in human history, there may have been as few as 500 women capable of procreation. They were very popular.
--Because of the bubonic plague which first...well, plagued Europe in the 6th century, English is the dominant language in the world today.
--The hostile climate in Siberia made it possible for the eruption of modern American culture.
--Napoleon lost the battle of Waterloo because it was raining.
--Had it not been for the Little Ice Age in the 15-16th centuries, we would not have Stradivarius violins today.
--In 1947, a scientist proved you could change the course of a hurricane headed to the coast of Florida by dropping two hundred pounds of dry ice into its eye. What the scientist didn't demonstrate was that he could control the new direction, which was Savannah, Georgia where it did about five million dollars worth of damage. The Georgians weren't amused.

Of course you didn't know all this. How could you? There's a lot more history than there's time to read it, which is why the world owes a great debt of thanks to Laura Lee for bringing into the light so much that had been hidden in mist and fog. With a dry sense of humor and a keen eye for recognizing and marrying apparently unrelated events, she has created the perfect excuse for abandoning Gibbon's 25,000 page Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and relying on her slim volume for the truth behind much of world history.

The book brings to mind that most august and definitive history of the island of Britain, 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates. Written by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman and published in 1930, it proved that history need not be long, complicated, or even accurate in order to be interesting.

To her credit, Ms. Lee tackles the entire world. At one point she toys with the notion of bring the Big Bang Theory into her thesis, but, in this reviewer's eyes, wisely backs away. That's a black hole from which few if any historians, even of Ms. Lee's caliber, ever return.

There are books that, like potato chips, cannot be put down. There are others that, like fine chocolate, must be savored a bit at a time. Blame it on the Rain clearly falls into the latter category. One only need pick it up to read a brief chapter (few are longer than five or six pages,) smile, and feel ennobled by the wisdom one has gained. While not a large box of chocolates, the book, if read properly, can keep one's appetite sated for months.

There is one significant flaw in the book that cannot be overlooked. Ms. Lee has been duped by Sir Thomas Moore (when he was still a lackey publicist for Henry VIII) who influenced Shakespeare into creating the pernicious lie that King Richard III of England murdered two young princes and stole the throne of England for himself. This is not true. Nor was Richard a hunch-back. Nor was he a particularly bad guy. He just happened to not be of the same family as Henry VII who needed to buttress his dubious claim to the throne.

But anyone can make a mistake.

Ms. Lee does have a message within this delightful romp through the mud, rain, sleet, and snow. "If all of this history and science has taught us anything it is this: We are neither the masters of the weather nor the servants of it--we are in a marriage with it."

We may not be masters of the weather, but Laura Lee is a master of the English language. Her writing is crisp, direct, and playful while at the same time powerful enough to bring to life some of the great horrors of human existence.

Blame it on the Rain by Laura Lee is a terrific, enjoyable read about how the weather affects us in ways we don't realize. I love books like this: filled with short bits of historical trivia that often inspire me to read other books and dig deeper. From pre-historical times to the present, episodes in history are explained with some form of weather as their primary cause. The reason the Anglo-Saxons were able to completely conquer Great Britain? A drought in Africa. The reason several rulers including Hitler and Napoleon were unable to conquer Russia? The cold. Even Truman's triumph over Dewey is explained by the heavy rains that probably kept conservative voters away from the polls on voting day. Her conclusions are heavily notated at the end of the book. Perhaps most entertaining about the book is Lee's writing style. She includes occasional sarcastic and snarky comments within the text making the book feel less like a history book and more like fun.

In no less than fifty-six chapters, the author guides the reader through just as many thrilling historical moments where the weather, not just the rain, has played a major role in shaping the events. The many stories are recounted in chronological order. They start with the Stone Age and go right up to the end of the twentieth century. The author's writing style is particularly noteworthy; it is clear, friendly and very often witty and tongue-in-cheek. Unusual or foreign terms are defined as they occur. If you are a history buff, you will find this book particularly difficult to put down; each exciting historical event which is described in, on average, about five pages, is followed by another one just as exciting. So, one is continuously tempted to read "just one more short chapter". The book ends with an eighteen page bibliography, for those wanting to know more. Highly recommended to everyone!

Due to its very short chapters that are unrelated to each other, this book is great for those of us who only have time to read once in awhile. It is interesting and pseudo educational with historical tidbits throughout. However, the chapters are so different from one another that I found it difficult sometimes to read one right after the other.

If anyone starts to get too caught up with the view that history is determinate, you may want to point out that one of the major factors in history, and it is full of indeterminates. This book is a series of light hearted story on how the weather has affected history. This I do not dispute.

Some of her stories, I am not so sure are correct. For example, the Russian's big mistake in the Finnish war was overestimating their military not being wrong about the weather. Napoleon's big mistake in Russia was overestimating how much food he could get from the Russians in Moscow. With more food, he could have held Moscow until the spring, so avoiding the need to retreat.

Furthermore, although you cannot predict the weather tomorrow, you probably can predict the season. I think much of the German problem at Moscow was because they suffered a major logistical collapse. This was because the roads were clogged. If Hitler had listened to an expert, much of this could have been avoided. An expert would probably have advised Hitler to wait the winter and not drive to Moscow. Nor did the Siberian divisions at Moscow despite being better dressed for the cold as the author points out then the Germans perform well in the battle. Stalingrad was not lost because the Germans underestimated the weather but because the Axis did not have enough reserves.

Still, the book is a good read.

A synopsis about how the weather could have changed History! Very Good thinking Material. It's a little too generalized. Could have been more in-depth as to the times in history involved.