The Great Warming By Brian Fagan

1073 Words5 Pages
The Great Warming is a book written by Brian Fagan that encompasses the environment and history pertaining to most of the human race between A.D. 800 and 1300. Not only does the book give a new dimension to world history by looking at climate history, but it also provides the reader with an ominous warning of the impact that climate change may have on the human race in the future. Fagan references many civilizations in the book that were affected by the rise in surface temperatures. He goes in depth with them individually to show just how worldwide this climate change was, how each civilization adapted or failed to adapt, and who the winners and losers were during this medieval warming period. Fagan’s argument and analysis in The Great Warming can be simplified by saying climate changes have had an enormous effect on the human race throughout history. Furthermore, he shows that an increase in surface temperatures can affect different parts of the world in a variety of ways. Some areas experience torrential and devastating rainfall where other regions are simultaneously victim to severe droughts. Fagan makes this argument by providing historical data of the earth through coral samples, deep sea cores, satellite technology, and tree rings. He then takes this data and attributes the findings to why particular civilizations flourished or vanished throughout history. An example of this is the Pueblo Bonito, “Visitors from miles around flocked to this, perhaps the greatest of
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