About
What is the Climate History Network?
The Network is an informal organization for teachers and researchers interested in climate and history. Our goal is to bring together historians and historical climatologists from around the world, to help forge more collaborative and interdisciplinary work, and to offer contacts and resources for academics in the field of climate and history.
This Network grew out of discussions on the H-Environment network in 2010. It is a member of the International Congress of Environmental History Organizations and holds a regular meeting at the American Society for Environmental History annual conferences. The Network does not have any institutional or political affiliation or funding. Membership is free.
Why do we need a network for climate and history?
Contemporary global warming has sparked a growing interest in past climates and spurred the production of ever more detailed and accurate climate reconstructions. This new research offers scholars a novel opportunity to understand the role of climate in history, to build on the scientific data using historical sources, and to put contemporary experiences in long-term perspective. This website and network are designed to help scholars find resources and contacts to launch research and teaching in this new interdisciplinary field.
What is in this website?
The main page is a blog entry for news in climate and history. Here we post publication information, conference reports, calls for papers, updates, and other announcements. The website is set up so that any member can easily become a contributor.
The pages offer lists of resources including useful climate databases and reconstruction projects, related climate and environmental history websites, and career and teaching information. The website also links to an extensive searchable climate history bibliography hosted on Zotero.
About the creators:
Sam White is asst. professor of environmental history at Oberlin College, where he teaches on climate in history. He is the author of The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2011), on the Little Ice Age in the Middle East, and various articles and chapters. He is currently researching the impact of climate and extreme weather on the first Europeans settlers in North America. <Sam White – Curriculum Vitae 2013-01-18>
Dagomar Degroot is a senior PhD candidate at York University. Working under the supervision of Dr. Richard Hoffmann, Dagomar uncovers relationships between the climatic fluctuations of the Little Ice Age and the turbulent history of the Dutch Republic during its golden age. A Canada Graduate Scholar, Dagomar is a former fellow at the International Institute for the History and Heritage of Cultural Landscapes and Urban Environments in Amsterdam. He is the co-editor of the journal Left History and the creator of HistoricalClimatology.com.
Let us know what you would like to see on this website!
sam.white@oberlin.edu
