The great warming:  climate change and the rise and fall of civilization by Brian Fagan

The cover illustration on this book is a painting of a medieval harvest. I expected a discussion of Europe during the Medieval Warm Period, that time from about 800 AD to 1300 AD when wine grapes grew in England and Greenland really was green. That, however, was only the beginning. Fagan also covers the effects of the climate shift in other areas of the world, from Timbuktu to Easter Island, and California to Peru.  --MM

July 10, 2008