Blame it on the rain : how the weather has changed history / Laura Lee.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, Laura, 1969-

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Weather--History.

Weather.

Weather--Social aspects.

Climate and civilization.

History.

Physical Description:

xi, 314 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Harper, [2006]

Summary:

Throughout history, great leaders have fallen, the outcomes of mighty battles have been determined, and the tides of earth-shattering events have been turned by a powerful, inscrutable force of nature: the weather. In Blame It on the Rain, author Laura Lee explores the amazing and sometimes bizarre ways in which weather has influenced our history and helped to bring about sweeping cultural change. She also delights us with a plethora of fascinating weather-related facts (Did you know that more Britons die of sunburn every year than Australians?), while offering readers a hilarious overview of humankind's many absurd attempts to control the elements.

Eye-opening, edifying, and totally unexpected, Blame It on the Rain is a fascinating appreciation of the destiny-altering vagaries of mother nature-and it's even more fun than watching the Weather Channel!

Contents:

Humans on the Brink of Extinction 7

Noah's Flood 11

The Population of Australia 15

Sea Breezes Save Western Culture 18

Tempestas Cooritur: The Battle of Teutoburg Forest 25

Why the Sun Never Sets on the British Isles 30

The First Kamikaze 35

Loss of the True Cross 40

Greenland's Vikings: Victims of Climate Change and Cultural Stubbornness 45

The Treaty That Fell from the Sky 52

My Pope's Better Than Your Pope: Lightning and the Great Schism 56

The Mud That Made England 61

The Fog of War 67

Lost Siberians 73

Which Witch Did This? 79

A Protestant Wind Destroys the Spanish Armada 84

Thanks to the Wind the Lost Colony Remains America's Greatest Mystery 88

Gee, It's Cold in Russia, Part I: Charles XII Invades Russia 92

The Secret of the Stradivarius 97

Another Protestant Wind Blows a New King to England's Throne 100

Ben Franklin and That Kite 105

Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares 110

Washington and the Weather 117

Hail to the French Revolution 124

Rain Ruins Robespierre 129

The United Irishmen, the French, and the Rain 135

A Slave Revolt Washed Away 139

Gee, It's Cold in Russia, Part II: Napoleon Invades Russia 145

Does That Star-Spangled Banner Yet Wave? 152

Tecumseh Is Lost in the Fog 159

The Water of Waterloo 166

Gee, It's Cold in Russia, Part III: A Senseless War Extended by the Weather 170

The Guy with the Sideburns Gets Stuck in the Mud 178

The Storm That Saved Civil War Prisoners 182

What Is That Guy in "The Scream" Afraid of? 186

A Gust of Wind and Aviation Obscurity 190

El Nino and Dashed Polar Dreams 194

Cold Shaving and Jacob Schick 199

The Failure of Forecasting and the Death of Lord Kitchener 203

Rain Clouds Put an End to the Age of the Airship 209

Gee, It's Cold in Finland: The Winter War 214

Gee, It's Cold in Russia, Part IV: Hitler Invades Russia 219

D-Day 230

Blooming with Atoms: A New Cloud Formation, the Mushroom 237

Sunshine over Hiroshima 243

Misreading the Monsoons 249

Dewey Defeats Truman 254

Canadian Chill Saves a National Park from Nuclear Contamination 257

Heat and the Powder Keg 261

Making Monsoons 267

Lucy and Her Friends 274

Operation Thwarted by Desert Storm 277

Meteorology and Rocketry 283

Blood Rain and World War III 289

Nature Does Not Carry a Passport 293.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [297]-314).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

0060839821

OCLC:

62325126

Publisher Number:

9780060839826