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Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century Hardcover – April 30, 2013

by Geoffrey Parker (Author)

4.5 263 ratings

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Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides – the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were not only unprecedented, they were agonisingly widespread. A global crisis extended from England to Japan, and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa. North and South America, too, suffered turbulence. The distinguished historian Geoffrey Parker examines first-hand accounts of men and women throughout the world describing what they saw and suffered during a sequence of political, economic and social crises that stretched from 1618 to the 1680s. Parker also deploys scientific evidence concerning climate conditions of the period, and his use of ‘natural’ as well as ‘human’ archives transforms our understanding of the World Crisis. Changes in the prevailing weather patterns during the 1640s and 1650s – longer and harsher winters, and cooler and wetter summers – disrupted growing seasons, causing dearth, malnutrition, and disease, along with more deaths and fewer births. Some contemporaries estimated that one-third of the world died, and much of the surviving historical evidence supports their pessimism.

Parker’s demonstration of the link between climate change and worldwide catastrophe 350 years ago stands as an extraordinary historical achievement. And the contemporary implications of his study are equally important: are we at all prepared today for the catastrophes that climate change could bring tomorrow?

Print length

904 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

April 30, 2013
Dimensions

6.5 x 2.75 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

9780300153231
ISBN-13

978-0300153231
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the books I found most informative and most perversely enjoyable this year is Geoffrey Parker’s Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century. It deserves, and rewards, careful reading.”—Jane Smiley, Harper’s (Jane Smiley Harper's)

“Mr. Parker tells [the story] with verve. . . . [his] novel interpretation, emphasizing climate instead of individual agency, helps to explain socio-economic change and revolution in ways that future historians will inevitably have to take into account.”—Wall Street Journal (Wall Street Journal)

“In his monumental new book . . . Parker’s approach is systematic and painstaking . . . giv[ing] us a rich and emotionally intense sense of how it felt to live through chaotic times.”—Lisa Jardine, Financial Times (Lisa Jardine Financial Times)

Received an Honorable Mention for the 2013 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE), in the European & World History category. (PROSE Awards American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence 2014-02-07)

Winner of the Society for Military History 2014 Distinguished Book Award for the best book-length publication in English on non-United States military history. (Distinguished Bok Award Society for Military History 2014-02-14)

“Global Crisis is a magnum opus that will remain a touchstone in three areas for at least a generation: the history of the entire globe, the role of climate in history, and the identification of a major historical crisis in the seventeenth century. . . . Wide-ranging, monumental works of history are rare; this is one of them.”—Theodore K. Rabb, Times Literary Supplement (Theodore K. Rabb Times Literary Supplement)

“In this vast, superbly researched and utterly engrossing book, Parker shows how climate change pushed the world towards chaos. . . . Parker’s book is not merely powerful and convincing, it is a monument to scholarly dedication.”—Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times (Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times 2013-03-24)

“Global Crisis is the production of a scholar . . . who has reflected on what he knows long enough to take on the double task of synthesis and breakthrough. . . . Parker regales the reader with some wild and grim tales, interleaved with thoughtful reflections from those who lived through the crises. A more genial geode to disaster one couldn’t hope to find. We shall need more of these in the future.”—Timothy Brook, Literary Review (Timothy Brook Literary Review 2013-07-01)

“[T]his monumental work by the distinguished historian Geoffrey Parker . . . is a formidable piece of scholarship that goes beyond it’s evident grand scale and ambition as a work of synthesis. . . . This book is scholarly and readable, bursting with fully documented examples and authoritative coverage of a vast swathe of 17th-century history, written on a broad canvas but accessible and compelling. It represents a worthy distillation of several decades of Parker’s scholarship, and should provide food for thought for academic historians and interested readers alike.”—Penny Roberts, BBC History Magazine (Penny Roberts BBC History Magazine 2013-06-01)

“A must read that shows how climate change 350 years ago can serve as a harbinger of the possible human consequences of today's rapidly changing climate. Essential. All levels/libraries.”—Choice (Choice)

“A work of formidable erudition and scope from a renowned British authority on early modern history.”—The Financial Times (Financial Times 2013-11-30)

“[A] brilliant and mulifaceted approach to the global 17th century.”—Robert E. Scully, S.J., America Magazine (Robert E. Scully, S.J. America)

Winner of a 2014 British Academy Medal. (Medal The British Academy 2014-06-23)

“This is a colossal book, literally and metaphorically. Reading it reminded me of the exhilaration of first reading Braudel’s Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Parker’s book has the same combination of rich detail, global reach and a simple but powerful argument that can change how we see an entire period. Like Braudel’s, Parker’s writing is deft, vivid and rich enough to carry the reader along on the book’s grand tour of the chilly, conflict-ridden world of the ‘General Crisis.’”—David Christian, Journal of Military History (David Christian Journal of Military History)

“It is rare that one reads a history book so compelling and so stimulating that one forgets to eat, but that was my experience with Geoffrey Parker’s magnificent Global Crisis, a magisterial, near 900-page study of the world in the 17th century that centres on the relationship between climate and human conflict.”—Paul Lay, History Today (Paul Lay History Today 2013-08-01)

“Parker’s great book challenges all future political and military historians to integrate the study of tree rings and glacier cores into their work. And it challenges his readers to think hard about whether humanity in the 21st century will be any less vulnerable than it was in the 17th to sudden disruptions of the environment on which we depend for our subsistence fully as much as did our ancestors of 400 years ago.”—David Frum Atlantic (David Frum Atlantic)

“Parker’s book amounts to a heady challenge for all historians of the early modern world, none of whom have put as much stock in climate variables, and few of whom can write about the big picture with the authority that he brings.”—J.R. McNeill, Public Books (J.R. McNeill Public Books)

“This colossal study accomplishes something the epics of Gilgamesh and Noah never could; It convincingly links a truly global climate disaster to an epidemic of wars and rebellions that shook the whole world.”—American Historical Review (American Historical Review)

About the Author

The winner of the 2012 Heineken Prize for History, Geoffrey Parker is Andreas Dorpalen Professor of History and Associate of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He lives in Columbus, OH.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0300153236
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press; 39046th edition (April 30, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 904 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780300153231
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300153231
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.04 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 2.75 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,642,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #986 in Weather (Books)
- #1,673 in Climatology
- #3,910 in Environmental Science (Books)

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4.5 263 ratings

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E. N. Anderson

Major work of history

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2014

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This is a great work; it will stand as a major history of human beings dealing with multiple crises. I have to disagree with those who say it's "not for the beach" just because it's long. It is so well and compellingly written that it served me well on a long vacation. Infinitely better than those horrible long novels people take with them.
My one problem is that Dr. Parker does not really prove a case that climate caused the revolutions and wars. He stops a bit short of saying it did. He correlates wars and rebellions with the horrible climate events of the Little Ice Age, but--in a particularly good section of the book--notes that the awful climate events continued well into the 18th century, but the wars didn't. In fact, the 18th century begat the Enlightenment, partly in reaction to all those wars in the 17th. So, in fact, climate problems sometimes go with wars and sometimes go with revolutions and sometimes with neither one. Not much hope of causal chains there.
In some cases, the wars were predictable long before the climate turned bad. The Ming Dynasty's survival till 1644 was a still-unexplained miracle; it was rotten and tottering by 1550 (or even 1500) and would surely have fallen in the 17th century, climate or no. The religious wars of Europe were also a long time coming; they started in the 1200s with the Albigensian Crusade and got steadily more serious as Protestantism appeared. The climax in the 17th century was fairly predictable.
So, how much does climate explain? It certainly made people more desperate. It certainly displaced millions, and displaced people have much less vested interest in peace than stably located ones. We will need a lot more studies.
Of course, Parker is writing with an eye to our current period of rapid climatic change. I expect that we will see either lots of wars or lots of action to stop climate change. Possibly both. Dr. Parker provides a scary scenario of what might happen (again).

30 people found this helpful

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kinmont

A sharp dose of historic reality

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2014

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This is a serious work of both the history of the time specified, namely the seventeenth century, and brings long overdue scholarship to the events that are encompassed in the phrase "climate change", a more than often over emotionally discussed question.. This is particularly so when within a nanosecond the topic is linked to "global warming" without the least attention paid to the history of what has actually happened in our sort period of observations of climate change and indeed that endlessly fascinating topic for us, namely the weather!

However, one of the main reasons for reading this book is that this is a serious work of scholarship and no-one should simply see it as work that relates solely to those words in the title namely "the Seventeenth Century". The author ranges widely over the observed history of climate change starting out in his Prologue with the observation that "Climate change has almost extinguished life on earth on three occasions". The thesis that that simple word "weather" and all it connotes can and has led to social and governmental change often violent and usually unanticipated is rigorously explored and set out before us.

The research that forms the spine of this book is exemplified by one hundred and twenty six pages listing sources and bibliography. To any of those scientists who have sought to make their reputation by the endless exploitation of some minimal science, futile conjecture on the subject of global warming, I would just say, "Read this book and reflect on your false premises."

Kinmont

5 people found this helpful

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Lake

correlation vs causality

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2013

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This book tells the story of the 17th century with its chaos, famine, revolutions, harsh weather and wars, and does in an all-encompassing look across the globe.

Much of this story has been told before either in works focusing on individual areas, or as a whole.

The premise underlying this retelling is that harsh and unusual weather/climate had a greater role in triggering the political upheaval than heretofore appreciated.

There is no doubt that the climate was severe based on historical records and observations, and that it resulted in famine, population decrease etc.

It's a little less clear to what extent the climate triggered the political events. The author interjects the climatic variables into the historical story and suggests they played a role but at times it's not clear whether the climatic effects were causal, correlated, or simply co-existed.

So we hear that cold, heat, drought, floods played into the historical events, but in some instances they are interjected into the currency of the events, which is no more meaningful than to acknowledge that while the unusually early and cold winter halted Napolean's and Hitler's attempt to conquer Russia, that the winters were in any way causal of their invasions rather than correlated or co-existent.

In most cases the author attempts to find and indicate causality but the lines do get blurred as to what was causal or coincidental, as the book repeatedly interject into the narrative that 'it was the coldest, hottest, driest, wettest' etc,; points out the disruption and famine that was undoubtedly caused by these changes and infers theeir connections as causative cause rather than an harsh but co-existent modifier of the events.

When climate change was not associated with massive unrest (Japan e.g) the author relates that to a better organized government and less pressure on the food supply among other explanations...which seems to try to have the climate stor both ways, although those mitigating effects may indeed by true.

It's a historian's prerogative to build and 'theme' the root causes of historical events... The historical events happen once but can have many interpretations... a la the dozens of books written about the precedents for say, the attack on Pearl Harbor or the causes of WWII.

I don't give the book less than 5 stars because of the thesis relating to the climate...it's a little dense and dry at times to read as it covers the events of the century, and begins to get a bit repetitive..

Overall, it's a good account of the travails of that century with an interesting theme that has much to support the premise of induction by climate...but if you've read about the chaos of the 17th century in any other book you won't get much more out of this than 'it was the coldest, hottest, driest, wettest, drought stricken, volcano inflicted' etc interjections, and you can add them yourself to your other readings, as they did occur.... but what they caused and with what they simply coincided or exacerbated is hard to tell.

The author may have been better placed to focus on the exacerbation of the events by climate rather than reaching to causality...but it wouldn't have been such a provocative new approach...which he is entitled to venture...

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S. J. Waldock

amazingly informative

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2020

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So far I've been dipping between reading the epilogue and starting at the beginning. So far some very compelling arguments presented on the effect of climate on human behaviour in the broad. As a fiction author with a thirst for accuracy, I've been logging the weather from various sources in my usual period, 1775-1820 in Britain which is enough of a challenge, and wondering how much effect the climate change of the Dalton Minimum had, and I am now inclined to consider looking at it more closely.
Having recently been studying Polish history to follow up a wild interest in winged hussars, I bought this book which was recommended by a friend, and it is a tremendous help, and explains a passage in Henryk Sienkiewicz's novel 'Potop' in which King Jan II Kazimierz Wasa makes the famous Lwów oath in April when there is hard frost. That this is a world-wide study is mind-blowing and I salute the author for dedication and scholarship.

4 people found this helpful

vrijbuiter

Une nouvelle histoire de la crise du 17ème siècle

Reviewed in France on March 19, 2017

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Geoffrey Parker,mondialement connu pour la thématique sur la Révolution Militaire, aborde ici un nouveau thème mettant en perspective les évolutions, politiques, économiques et militaires dans ce que l'on appelle la crise du 17ème siècle. Le petit âge glaciaire a sévi plusieurs pays du globe et l'auteur montre avec brio l'impact du climat, et des événements naturels. C'est un livre avec de nombreuses références et qui n'est pas centré seulement sur l'Europe. Geoffrey Parker aborde le thème de façon mondiale en tenant compte des recherches menées depuis une dizaine d'années et indiquant par ailleurs les vides subsistants ainsi que les axes à approfondir. C'est un excellent livre d'histoire qui se lit très bien

3 people found this helpful

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Paula Jenkins

Although very interesting and often reading like today's news

Reviewed in Australia on August 6, 2015

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Although very interesting and often reading like today's news....it was far too long a saga......just skipped the last 2 chapters

2 people found this helpful

RJB

Exhaustive compelling history

Reviewed in Canada on August 18, 2023

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Thought I was a student of history until reading this book - 3/4 the way through 800+ pages. The scholarship and attention to detail is staggering. Will have to go through again and take notes. Covers every continent and culture and major event of the 1600's including climate. Lives up to it's title.

rametag

An essential read for any History buff

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2015

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The scope of this book is quite extraordinary and the scholarship involved somewhat intimidating. A detailed insight into events that few appear to be aware of but which have contributed to shaping the world we live in. There are lessons to be learned for the survival of mankind but whether they will be observed is open to question. In spite of its length and the detail I found it an absorbing and easy read although I struggled with the pronunciation of Chinese and Japanese names. If your interest is in history and you are curious as to how we have managed to survive this long then you should read this book.

3 people found this helpful

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