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The third horseman : climate change and the Great Famine of the 14th century / William Rosen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Viking, 2014Description: 302 pages : illustrations ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0670025895 (hardback)
  • 9780670025893 (hardback)
Subject(s):
Contents:
Prologue: Eight Crowns in Boulogne, 1308 -- The Fury of the Northmen, 793-1066 -- Henceforth Be Earls, 1066-1298 -- Penalty for Their Betters, 1298-1307 -- Douglas's Larder, 1307-1312 -- Scots, Wha Hae, 1313-1315 -- The Floodgates of the Heavens, 1315-1316 -- A Dearness of Wheat, 1316-1317 -- She-Wolf of France, 1313-1320 -- The Dearest Beef I've Ever Seen, 1320-1322 -- The Mouse Tower of Bingen, 800-1323 -- Long Years of Havoc, 1323-1328 -- Epilogue: The Delicate Balance.
Scope and content: "How a seven-year cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history ... In May 1315, it started to rain. It didn't stop anywhere in north Europe until August. Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium. Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe's livestock. Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the Holy Roman Empire destroyed all remaining farmland. After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives--one eighth of Europe's total population. William Rosen draws on a wide array of disciplines, from military history to feudal law to agricultural economics and climatology, to trace the succession of traumas that caused the Great Famine. With dramatic appearances by Scotland's William Wallace, and the luckless Edward II and his treacherous Queen Isabella, history's best documented episode of catastrophic climate change comes alive, with powerful implications for future calamities"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 940.192 R813 Available 33111007557198
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

In May 1315, it started to rain. It didn't stop anywhere in northern Europe until August. Next came the coldest winters in a millennium. Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe's livestock. Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the rule of the Holy Roman Empire destroyed the remaining farmland. After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives - one eighth of Europe's total population.

The Third Horseman tells the story of those seven years that saw one of the most astonishing catastrophes in Europe's history. It reveals the complex and interrelated forces, centuries gestating, that set the stage for the apocalyptic disaster that became known as the Great Famine. William Rosen draws connections between feudalism and agricultural economics; climatology and Viking exploration; chivalric warfare and village life, showing how a succession of impersonal traumas conspired to turn hunger into starvation.

The Third Horseman paints rich portraits of the key actors of the period, characters such as Scotland's William Wallace, and Robert Bruce, facing off against a feckless Edward II of England whose failures serve as a colourful backdrop to changing demographics across Europe. By incorporating the most current scientific theories and economic models, Rosen demonstrates, too, the powerful implication for climate change today.

A stunning story told with exceptional wit and drama by a writer whose breadth of knowledge of history and science defies category, The Third Horseman is a reminder that history can be made by events that shift, ever so gradually, the delicate balance between life and death.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-289) and index.

Prologue: Eight Crowns in Boulogne, 1308 -- The Fury of the Northmen, 793-1066 -- Henceforth Be Earls, 1066-1298 -- Penalty for Their Betters, 1298-1307 -- Douglas's Larder, 1307-1312 -- Scots, Wha Hae, 1313-1315 -- The Floodgates of the Heavens, 1315-1316 -- A Dearness of Wheat, 1316-1317 -- She-Wolf of France, 1313-1320 -- The Dearest Beef I've Ever Seen, 1320-1322 -- The Mouse Tower of Bingen, 800-1323 -- Long Years of Havoc, 1323-1328 -- Epilogue: The Delicate Balance.

"How a seven-year cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history ... In May 1315, it started to rain. It didn't stop anywhere in north Europe until August. Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium. Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe's livestock. Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the Holy Roman Empire destroyed all remaining farmland. After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives--one eighth of Europe's total population. William Rosen draws on a wide array of disciplines, from military history to feudal law to agricultural economics and climatology, to trace the succession of traumas that caused the Great Famine. With dramatic appearances by Scotland's William Wallace, and the luckless Edward II and his treacherous Queen Isabella, history's best documented episode of catastrophic climate change comes alive, with powerful implications for future calamities"-- Provided by publisher.

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