A New Theory on a Past Catastrophe
Geoffrey Parker prefaces his new book with a collection of quotes, including:
“The times here are so miserable that never in the memory of man has the like famine and mortality happened.” –East India Company officials, letter, Surat, India, 1631
”Among all the strange occurrences of disaster and rebellion, there had never been anything worse than this.” –County Gazetteer, Yizhou, North China, 1641
“This seems to be one of the epochs in which every nation is turned upside down, leading some great minds to suspect that we are approaching the end of the world.” – Nicandro [The victor], pamphlet, Madrid, Spain, 1643
“If one ever had to believe in the Last Judgment, I think it is happening right now” –Judge Renaud de Sévigné, letter, Paris, France, 1649
If these snippets of history are surprising, then Geoffrey Parker’s new tour de force Global Crisis: War, Climate Change & Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century will shock readers. His book attempts to provide some context and a retrospective explanation for the extreme conditions of the 17th Century, a time when wars, droughts, famines, and invasions were both common place and widespread. The most outrageous aspect of this era is its international interconnectivity.
As an historian, Parker was not content with previous explanations of this too coincidental, pervasive catastrophe, so he turned to weather patterns to try and work out the puzzle. What he discovered was a pattern of longer, harsher winters and cooler, wetter summers in the 1640s and 1650s. These conditions affected growing seasons, public nutrition, death and birth rates. This calamity was massive in scope because these were global changes.
The concept of global climate change and its detrimental affects may seem new, but these events took place over 350 years ago. Parker’s book is an important link in the understanding of climate on populations throughout history and in our future.
Tonight the Hertog Global Strategy Initiative brings Parker for a lecture series on the history of climate change and the future of global governance at Columbia University. Parker’s lecture, “Climate and Crisis: War, Famine, and Empires in the 1590s” begins at 6pm. The event is free and open to the public
Geoffrey Parker is right as the records of history tell us about the drastic changes taken place in the 17th century. All the literature of 17th century has the glimpses of these intrusions. Even the era of Donne, a Metaphysical poet, is often called the age of anxiety. The book “Global Crises” is now inviting us again to dive into the history and view the crises with a new prospect.
Samreen M
Bolee.com