Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos [Hardcover]

William James Burroughs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2005

How did humankind deal with the extreme challenges of the last Ice Age? How have the relatively benign post-Ice Age conditions affected the evolution and spread of humanity across the globe? By setting our genetic history in the context of climate change during prehistory, the origin of many features of our modern world are identified and presented in this illuminating book. It reviews the aspects of our physiology and intellectual development that have been influenced by climatic factors, and how features of our lives - diet, language and the domestication of animals - are also the product of the climate in which we evolved. In short: climate change in prehistory has in many ways made us what we are today. Climate Change in Prehistory weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in the effects of climate on human development and history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Quoting from and bringing together evidence from a very wide range and long list of references, Bill Burroughs presents a compelling argument for the profound effect of the stabilisation of climate into and through the Holocene on humanity using, in particular, ice-core proxy data as a measure of climate. Intended for a general readership of interested readers, I recommend this well-written, readable overview to all."
Jim Galvin, Royal Meteorological Society

"...covers an amazing range of relevant topics and does not shirk from controversy...the story the author weaves is up to date and utterly fascinating, and it captures the excitement and promise in combining studies of climatic and human history."
The Quarterly Review of Biology, David Rhode, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada

"The central virtue of this book is that it asks big, provocative questions about the possible effects of climate on our species. These attempts at cross - disciplinary theorizing expand our horizons and lift us beyond the limits of our specific disciplines."
William Ruddiman, American Meteorological Society

Book Description

This book explores the challenges that faced humankind in a glacial climate and the opportunities that arose when the climate improved dramatically after the Ice Age. It weaves together studies of the climate with anthropological, archaeological and historical studies, and will fascinate all those interested in climate and human development.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 372 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (June 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521824095
• ISBN-13: 978-0521824095
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,384,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A balanced account of the latest thinking, September 12, 2005

By 

Robert Muirhead "Bob" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos (Hardcover)

At first I thought that "Climate Change in Prehistory" was too academic and stuffed with dry facts for the non-specialist reader. I changed my mind by the end.

There are certainly lots of facts and technical jargon, but these are enlivened by occasional gems of dry humour. The author has also struck a good balance with technical jargon.

The book is easy to read, although it is not a "popular" account by any means.

The author handles controversial topics well: such as the date of human occupation of the Amercas and the extinction of megafauna in Australia and the Americas. He presents the relevant research (including the occasional crackpot theory) and indicates where consensus or controversy exist.

Readers who want to dig deeper into specific issues have plenty of references and an excellent bibliography to get them started.

The book covers a surprisingly wide range of topics. For example, the effects of changing diets (meat vs carbohydrates) as humans changed from being hunter-gatherers to farmers is

described. The author seems to come to an implicit conclusion in relation to modern diets, but I won't give the game away by revealing it here.

Ancient history is generally taught as starting with the Egyptians and Mesopotamian civilisations, so most students have never been exposed to descriptions of what came before the

evolution of large, settled societies - probably because little beyond conjecture was known until quite recently.

Books such as "Climate Change in Prehistory" show how much we have learned about climate in pre-history in recent decades - and how much a study of the remote past can illuminate current
climate debates.

I was struck by how well Burroughs integrates information from a remarkably wide range of data into his book - ice cores, linguistics, pollen studies, oceanic sediments, tree rings to name just a few.

Readers new to the subject, or who are looking for a less-technical account, might be better off reading "The Long Summer" (Fagan) and "The Little Ice Age" (Grove). These are both excellent introductions to climate and its effects on humans since the last ice age.

"Climate Change in Prehistory" is an excellent book for readers who want to know the latest thinking about how climate has varied and affected humans since the last ice age.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Climate and Sociologic Developments 20 K Years Ago, June 29, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos (Hardcover)

Pre-history in this case is really defined in terms of the last ice age. In the first part of the book the author talks about relatively recent research into the weather changes in the last hundred thousand or so years. This is based on things like drilling cores into the ice in Greenland and Antarctica. Trapped air in bubbles in the ice provide clues to the climate at the time.

After that the author begins to look into the effects of these changes on life at the time. This includes both plant and animal life as well as human. The author contends, and with some very good reasoning, that the climatic conditions at the time did a lot to define an awful lot of things that we take for granted today, things like the differing gender roles, color blindness (men are about 20 times more likely to be color blind than women), migration patterns (a lot of the old thinking has been revised in view of DNA studies).

One striking point is the possibility or even likelyhood that there was a migration from Europe to America in the 20,000 year ago time period. This is was suggested by the similarity of arrowheads (the Clovis points) in America and parts of Europe. Then DNA evidence of Indians living around the Great Lakes seem to have a different lineage than the rest of the American Indians.

This is a new book that reflects the new theories that result from recent scientific discoveries.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, December 15, 2009

By 

Christopher Curran "Dogfan" (Dillard, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Climate Change in Prehistory: The End of the Reign of Chaos (Paperback)

This book is carefully written with all of the proper citations typical of an academic text. I found the author to be straightforward about what he knows and how he knows it. Also, Burroughs is not afraid to let you know when he is speculating as opposed to interpretations based on scientific facts. In the end the book is a great read. I recommend it to anyone interested in the climate that early homo sapiens evolved in.