New Publications on Climate and Crisis in History
This month UNC Press published Sherry Johnson’s new book, Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World, which explores the impact of extreme weather on the late 18th-century political economy of the Caribbean and the rise of revolutionary sentiments in the Atlantic world.
In another significant recognition of climate in history, the latest issue of the American Historical Review includes a compelling article by Victor Lieberman, “Charter State Collapse in Southeast Asia, ca.1250-1400, as a Problem in Regional and World History.” Drawing on ideas in his massive Strange Parallels, and working from recent paleoclimate data, Lieberman makes the case that onset of colder weather and erratic precipitation in the 14th century can help explain the otherwise mysterious near-simultaneous collapse of three Southeast Asian charter states, at a time of famine and political crisis from Western Europe to Yuan China.
