The Weather in the Imagination
Distribution by the University of Chicago Press only to customers in the USA and Canada. Customers elsewhere should visit the UK website of Reaktion Books.
Distributed for Reaktion Books
224 pages
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5.43 x 8.5
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© 2005
Why is the Weather Channel one of the top ranked cable networks? Why was The Day After Tomorrow a summer blockbuster? The Weather in the Imagination seeks to answer these and other questions about our fascination with the weather, as Lucian Boia offers an intriguing analysis of the theories, scenarios, and psychoses caused by climate.
Boia here examines the cultural influence of weather through the lens of anthropology and psychology, history, and catastrophe. He first investigates how human diversity is linked to weather and why people differ according to their native climates. He then looks at how climate can explain the dynamics of historical progress and the rise and fall of civilizations, citing how Nazis used it to justify the superiority of the "Aryan" race. And what can destroy or induce panic in a society more effectively than a good climatic jolt? Boia investigates the social upheaval caused by catastrophic weather conditions, citing the most gripping example in human history, the Biblical Flood.
The Weather in the Imagination is a thought-provoking chronicle of how humans throughout history have been bewildered, infuriated, and often terrified by the weather.
Boia here examines the cultural influence of weather through the lens of anthropology and psychology, history, and catastrophe. He first investigates how human diversity is linked to weather and why people differ according to their native climates. He then looks at how climate can explain the dynamics of historical progress and the rise and fall of civilizations, citing how Nazis used it to justify the superiority of the "Aryan" race. And what can destroy or induce panic in a society more effectively than a good climatic jolt? Boia investigates the social upheaval caused by catastrophic weather conditions, citing the most gripping example in human history, the Biblical Flood.
The Weather in the Imagination is a thought-provoking chronicle of how humans throughout history have been bewildered, infuriated, and often terrified by the weather.
"He brings breadth and clarity to a much overlooked but historically profound subject."--Glasgow Herald
"Boia's timely book places current concerns about climate change into context ... plenty of illuminating interludes."--The Guardian
"[Boia] has written a stimulating book . . . reviewing the literature on theories of how climate has affected societies, and of how humans may have influenced climate."--Julian Hunt, Nature
"A fascinating look at how society interprets climate. As an historian, Boia presents an honest, objective view of the continuing interplay between people, the weather, and their own thoughts. This entertaining and thoughtful book is good for anybody interested in climate--particularly those involved with the overlap between climate science, politics, and society."
Contents
Introduction
1. Climate and People
2. The Climate of the Philosophers: The Eighteenth Century
3. The North at the Zenith
4. The Changing Climate: The Twentieth Century
5. The Logic of the Flood
6. The Global Warming Dossier
By Way of a Conclusion
References
Index
1. Climate and People
2. The Climate of the Philosophers: The Eighteenth Century
3. The North at the Zenith
4. The Changing Climate: The Twentieth Century
5. The Logic of the Flood
6. The Global Warming Dossier
By Way of a Conclusion
References
Index
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Earth Sciences: Environment
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