The Little Ice Age

The groundbreaking history of how climate change transformed  the world 

“Fagan shows in this wonderful book how vulnerable human society is to climatic zigzags.”―New Scientist

The Little Ice Age tells the fascinating story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history. Using sources ranging from the business records of medieval monasteries to modern chemical analysis of ice cores, renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan reveals the five-hundred-year cold snap that began in the fourteenth century. As Fagan shows, the increasingly cold and stormy weather dramatically altered fishing and farming practices, and it shaped familiar events, from Norse exploration to the settlement of North America, and from the French Revolution to the Irish potato famine to the Industrial Revolution. History demonstrates that climate change does not come in gentle, easy stages—and its influence on human life is profound. 

A lively and groundbreaking history, The Little Ice Age offers essential context for understanding today’s age of global warming.

• “Fagan shows in this wonderful book how vulnerable human society is to climatic zigzags.”
  New Scientist
• “A fascinating account of events both obscure and well known… as seen through the lens of weather and its effect on harvests.”
  Foreign Affairs
• “A highly readable and erudite analysis.”
  Guardian (UK)
• “Even without the contemporary relevance lent the book by the specter of global warming, The Little Ice Age would be an engrossing historical volume.”
  Boston Globe
• “The Little Ice Age could do for the historical study of climate what Foucault's Madness and Civilization did for the historical study of mental illness: make it a respectable subject for scholarly inquiry.”
  Scientific American
• “Even without the contemporary relevance lent to the book by the specter of global warming, The Little Ice Age would be an engrossing historical volume.”
  South Florida Sun-Sentinel
• “A nimble, lively, provocative book.”
  Booklist