The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History - William K. Klingaman & Nicholas P. Klingaman
Non-Fiction
Pages: 352
1816 is best known as 'The Year Without Summer', the year a volcanic eruption in Indonesia affected weather patterns the world over, resulting in catastrophic droughts, floods, unseasonable snows and frosts. It was the summer that gave birth to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Turner's dramatic paintings of vivid red sunsets. It was also the summer that destroyed harvests and caused untold deaths through famine and privation.
This book is more than just a meteorological history of the world in the year 1816. In fact, it could hardly be that at all, as records simply do not exist for more than a handful of countries. But for those countries - mostly Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United States - it is a fascinating snapshot of life in 1816 and how those countries coped with a disaster they could hardly understand.
It is only relatively recently that scientists have come to understand definitely how volcanic eruptions and the dust thrown into the stratosphere can cause changes to the weather; in 1816 the unseasonable weather was blamed on earthquakes, sunspots, disruptions to the earth's 'electrical fluid' and, inevitably, God. A volcanic eruption in a country most people had never heard of had a direct impact on millions of lives - death and disease, political unrest and civil disobedience, charity and government legislation, all were affected the eruption of Mount Tambora, particularly in a Europe just emerging from the shadow of the Napoleonic Wars.
Parts were a tad repetitive; without sounding callous, when you've read about disastrous harvests in Vermont, to read about the same thing in New Hampshire, and Maine, and New York, and Ohio, and Rhode Island, is a little tedious. But I understand that to a certain extent such repetition is necessary, to demonstrate just how widespread the devastation truly was. So I thoroughly enjoyed this book, more than I expected to.
Non-Fiction
Pages: 352
1816 is best known as 'The Year Without Summer', the year a volcanic eruption in Indonesia affected weather patterns the world over, resulting in catastrophic droughts, floods, unseasonable snows and frosts. It was the summer that gave birth to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Turner's dramatic paintings of vivid red sunsets. It was also the summer that destroyed harvests and caused untold deaths through famine and privation.
This book is more than just a meteorological history of the world in the year 1816. In fact, it could hardly be that at all, as records simply do not exist for more than a handful of countries. But for those countries - mostly Great Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United States - it is a fascinating snapshot of life in 1816 and how those countries coped with a disaster they could hardly understand.
It is only relatively recently that scientists have come to understand definitely how volcanic eruptions and the dust thrown into the stratosphere can cause changes to the weather; in 1816 the unseasonable weather was blamed on earthquakes, sunspots, disruptions to the earth's 'electrical fluid' and, inevitably, God. A volcanic eruption in a country most people had never heard of had a direct impact on millions of lives - death and disease, political unrest and civil disobedience, charity and government legislation, all were affected the eruption of Mount Tambora, particularly in a Europe just emerging from the shadow of the Napoleonic Wars.
Parts were a tad repetitive; without sounding callous, when you've read about disastrous harvests in Vermont, to read about the same thing in New Hampshire, and Maine, and New York, and Ohio, and Rhode Island, is a little tedious. But I understand that to a certain extent such repetition is necessary, to demonstrate just how widespread the devastation truly was. So I thoroughly enjoyed this book, more than I expected to.