Global crisis : war, climate change and catastrophe in the seventeenth century / Geoffrey Parker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parker, Geoffrey, 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History, Modern--17th century.

History, Modern.

Military history--17th century.

Military history.

Civil war--History--17th century.

Civil war.

Revolutions--History--17th century.

Revolutions.

Climatic changes--Social aspects--History--17th century.

Climatic changes.

Disasters--History--17th century.

Disasters.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (672 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, c2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides, government collapses-the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were unprecedented in both frequency and extent. The effects of what historians call the ";General Crisis"; extended from England to Japan, from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa. The Americas, too, did not escape the turbulence of the time. In this meticulously researched volume, master historian Geoffrey Parker presents the firsthand testimony of men and women who saw and suffered from the sequence of political, economic, and social crises between 1618 to the late 1680's. Parker also deploys the scientific evidence of climate change during this period. His discoveries revise entirely our understanding of the General Crisis: changes in prevailing weather patterns, especially longer winters and cooler and wetter summers, disrupted growing seasons and destroyed harvests. This in turn brought hunger, malnutrition, and disease; and as material conditions worsened, wars, rebellions, and revolutions rocked the world. Parker's demonstration of the link between climate change, war, and catastrophe 350 years ago stands as an extraordinary historical achievement. And the implications of his study are equally important: are we adequately prepared-or even preparing-for the catastrophes that climate change brings?

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Illustrations

Prologue: Did Someone Say 'Climate Change'?

Introduction: The 'Little Ice Age' and the 'General Crisis'

1 .The Little Ice Age

2. The 'General Crisis'

3 .'Hunger is the greatest enemy': The Heart of the Crisis

4. 'A third of the world has died': Surviving in the Seventeenth Century

5 .The 'Great Enterprise' in China, 1618-84

6 .'The great shaking': Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1618-86

7. The 'Ottoman tragedy', 1618-83

8 .The 'lamentations of Germany' and its Neighbours, 1618-88

9. The Agony of the Iberian Peninsula, 1618-89

10. France in Crisis, 1618-88

11.The Stuart Monarchy: The Path to Civil War, 1603-42

12. Britain and Ireland from Civil War to Revolution, 1642-89

13. The Mughals and their Neighbours

14. Red Flag over Italy

15. The 'dark continents': The Americas, Africa and Australia

16. Getting it Right: Early Tokugawa Japan

17. 'Those who have no means of support': The Parameters of Popular Resistance

18. 'People who hope only for a change': Aristocrats, Intellectuals, Clerics and the 'dirty people of no name'

19. 'People of heterodox beliefs . . . who will join up with anyone who calls them': Disseminating Revolution

20. Escaping the Crisis

21 .From Warfare State to Welfare State

22 .The Great Divergence

Conclusion: The Crisis Anatomized

Epilogue: 'It's the climate, stupid'

chronology

Acknowledgements

Conventions

Sources and Bibliography

Abbreviations Used in the Bibliography and Notes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781299284227

1299284221

9780300189193

0300189192

OCLC:

1024051466