Climate History

The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.

A Brief History of the Earth's Climate is an accessible, myth-busting guide to the natural evolution of the Earth's climate over 4.6 billion years, and how and why human-caused global warming and climate change is different and much more dangerous. It covers the major historical climate change processes, as well as recent human-induced climate change and the implications of the COVID pandemic for climate change. It is an essential listen for everyone who is looking to understand what drives climate change, counter skeptics and deniers, and take action on the climate emergency.

A revolutionary new history that reveals how climate change has dramatically shaped the development—and demise—of civilizations across time Global warming is one of the greatest dangers mankind faces today. Even as temperatures increase, sea levels rise, and natural disasters escalate, our...

A Financial Times Most Anticipated Book of 2025 A sweeping, dramatic history of capitalism as seen through the eyes of its fiercest critics. At a time when artificial intelligence, climate change, and inequality are raising fundamental questions about the economic system, Capitalism and Its...

The rise of human civilization and all of recorded history occurred in this warm period, known as the Holocene. Until very recently, we had no detailed record of climate changes during the Holocene. Now we do. In this engrossing and captivating look at the human effects of climate variability, Brian Fagan shows how climate functioned as what the historian Paul Kennedy described as one of the “deeper transformations” of history—a more important historical factor than we understand.

Once again George Mitrovic is looking at a series of mysteries. In this book he is examining the proofs for Climate change being unique to and caused by the civilization of our present day. Unfortunately, he has found repetitions of climate that make our present one a pleasant day in the park, or should I say interstadial and that our technology may exacerbate the climate, it is nothing compared to the events of the past, and the climatic events that will be occurring in the future. George has also found that the scientific study of geology amongst other sciences, are based on an incorrect ...

Brazil: Sleeping Giant is a sweeping, urgent, and accessible history of one of the world’s most important—and most misunderstood—nations. From the ancient geological origins of the Amazon rainforest to the explosive social and political battles of the 21st century, this book tells the story of Brazil in all its contradictions: a country of wealth and poverty, democracy and dictatorship, global influence and internal fragility. Author and historian Donald Elton explores the deep roots of Brazil’s inequality, the cultural power of its music and people, and the global stakes of the ...

Nature doesn't just happen; it attacks. Experience the raw power of the atmosphere’s most violent whiteouts in this gripping narrative that spans centuries of human struggle. From the deceptive, mild morning of the 1888 Gilded Age to the hyper-connected, digital-age chaos of the 2022 Buffalo tragedy, these are the moments when civilization stood still and the elements took over. Discover the harrowing true accounts of teachers shielding students on the frozen plains, cities paralyzed by "bomb cyclones," and the catastrophic technical failures that left millions in the dark. This ...

How well do you know the ground beneath your feet? A primer for every Earth resident, by Harvard’s acclaimed geologist. “A sublime chronicle of our planet." –Booklist, STARRED review Odds are, where you’re standing was once cooking under a roiling sea of lava, crushed by a towering sheet...

Earth and Life: From a Molten World to the Age of Primates is a cause-and-effect journey through 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history—told in plain, clear language, but built on real science. This is not a timeline of facts. It is a logical reconstruction of how a dead, molten planet became a stable world with oceans, continents, ecosystems, dinosaurs, mammals, and eventually primates. You begin at the true starting line: a universe that initially had almost no heavy elements, the birth and death of ancient stars, and the formation of the solar system. From there, the book follows ...

From a bestselling author of epic fiction comes the deeply human story of one of the world’s greatest mysteries: the building of Stonehenge. A FLINT MINER WITH A GIFT Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat, to witness the rituals that signal the start of a...

What truths lie in the black void between the stars? It’s late September 2019 when a young astronomer working at the Haleakala Space Observatory in Maui, Hawaii, accidentally spots a black dot in the night sky and is calculated to be closely trailing Earth by only seventy-five million miles…on the same ecliptic plane. NASA launches an unmanned probe to Earth’s nearest neighbor, given the name ILK-87b. The images coming back from the black planet both shock and amaze those inside the halls of NASA. Curiosity, fear, and dread overcome insiders as infrastructure is detected on the black ...

28 speeches and reflections from Indigenous leaders around the world Wisdom for our times, nourishment for our collective, and a pathway forward toward sustainable, interconnected futures Indigenous worldviews, and the knowledge they confer, are critical for human survival and the wellbeing of...

To understand Earth’s future, we must first look 13.8 billion years into the past. Climate change is often debated in the context of the next election cycle or the last ten years of weather. But to truly understand Earth’s climate, you have to look bigger. Much bigger. In his 30th book, veteran author J.P. Ames takes readers on a breathtaking scientific journey that begins not with the Industrial Revolution, but with the Big Bang. Earth Climate History: Cycles and Causes is the missing manual for our planet. It strips away the politics and the shouting to focus on the physics, astronomy...

Scientists, journalists, and politicians increasingly tell us that human impacts on climate constitute the single greatest threat facing our planet and may even bring about the extinction of our species. Yet behind these anxieties lies an older, much deeper fear about the power that climate exerts over us. The Empire of Climate traces the history of this idea and its pervasive influence over how we interpret world events and make sense of the human condition, from the rise and fall of ancient civilizations to the afflictions of the modern psyche.

'An extraordinary mastery of geopolitics, combining years on the ground in the most challenging places, a raw instinct for politics and a deep ethical concern for the world in the face of climate catastrophe. A masterpiece.' - RORY STEWART 'A powerful, passionate and utterly convincing book.' -...

The Royal Society's Science Book of the Year "...Henry Gee presents a pithy, fascinating account of the stages of biological evolution. He's a deliberate, engaged narrator whose slow pacing will require adaptation. This and creative background music and sound effects (dinosaur sounds?) create a...

An extraordinary exposé of the industry flooding our world with plastic—and now ramping up to make more than ever “A compelling true-crime story.” —Zoë Schlanger, The New York Times Book Review “Deeply researched, sharply written, and totally compelling.” —Elizabeth Kolbert...

From the author of the New York Times bestseller Prisoners of Geography, a fascinating, “refreshing, and very useful” (The Washington Post) follow-up that uses ten maps to explain the challenges to today’s world powers and how they presage a volatile future. Tim Marshall’s global...

“In the modern tradition of Big Books of human history like Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens and David Graeber and David Wengrow’s The Dawn of Everything, Goliath’s Curse provides a novel theory of civilizational development. . . . [It] feels something like reading the French economist Thomas...