Frankopan demonstrates an impressive grasp of world history. Unfortunately, the result is a sprawling volume with structural flaws 🖊️ By TravelCourse
There’s a problem with the author’s leading idea: Climate has not been overlooked as an historical theme
Where the book is strongest is its detailed accounts of how human depredations upon the environment have steadily worsened Humanity and nature have ever been at odds. In this weighty volume, Peter Frankopan recounts many momentous clashes down the ages, with his sub-title “An Untold History” hinting at his aim to “reinsert climate back into the story of the past as an underlying, crucial and much overlooked theme in global history”.
Nature mostly has the ascendancy. It has crushed nations, empires and civilisations alike and recent scientific research offers fresh insights. Droughts in central Asia between AD350 and AD550, Frankopan tells us, drove nomadic tribes west and were a factor in the fall of the Roman Empire. More than a millennium on, an extreme La Niña event might have played a role in the poor harvests which helped to trigger the French Revolution., that time round from the perspectives of the east.
Because climate is not Frankopan’s only theme. He also explores human interventions in the environment, most prominently in causing degradation and pollution. In addition – and more ambitiously still – he says he wishes to widen the whole scope of history writing. As well as broadening his subject matter beyond Western concerns once more, he declares he wants to look beyond cities and place more emphasis on the rural world, which has received less attention from historians.
These are all laudable intentions and, once again, Frankopan demonstrates an impressive grasp of world history. Unfortunately, the result is a sprawling volume with structural flaws. His trio of hobby horses frequently diverges and constantly jostles for the reader’s attention.has not been overlooked as an historical theme. Droughts, floods, storms, earthquakes and eruptions have always been staples for historians.
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