Global Crisis

"One of the books I found most informative and most perversely enjoyable this year is Geoffrey Parker's Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century. It deserves, and rewards, careful reading."-Jane Smiley, Harper's -- Jane Smiley Harper's "Mr. Parker tells [the story] with verve... [his] novel interpretation, emphasizing climate instead of individual agency, helps to explain socio-economic change and revolution in ways that future historians will inevitably have to take into account."-Wall Street Journal Wall Street Journal "In his monumental new book ... Parker's approach is systematic and painstaking ... giv[ing] us a rich and emotionally intense sense of how it felt to live through chaotic times."-Lisa Jardine, Financial Times -- Lisa Jardine Financial Times Received an Honorable Mention for the 2013 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE), in the European & World History category. -- PROSE Awards American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence Winner of the Society for Military History 2014 Distinguished Book Award for the best book-length publication in English on non-United States military history. -- Distinguished Bok Award Society for Military History "Global Crisis is a magnum opus that will remain a touchstone in three areas for at least a generation: the history of the entire globe, the role of climate in history, and the identification of a major historical crisis in the seventeenth century... Wide-ranging, monumental works of history are rare; this is one of them."-Theodore K. Rabb, Times Literary Supplement -- Theodore K. Rabb Times Literary Supplement "In this vast, superbly researched and utterly engrossing book, Parker shows how climate change pushed the world towards chaos... Parker's book is not merely powerful and convincing, it is a monument to scholarly dedication."-Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times -- Dominic Sandbrook Sunday Times "Global Crisis is the production of a scholar ... who has reflected on what he knows long enough to take on the double task of synthesis and breakthrough... Parker regales the reader with some wild and grim tales, interleaved with thoughtful reflections from those who lived through the crises. A more genial geode to disaster one couldn't hope to find. We shall need more of these in the future."-Timothy Brook, Literary Review -- Timothy Brook Literary Review "[T]his monumental work by the distinguished historian Geoffrey Parker ... is a formidable piece of scholarship that goes beyond it's evident grand scale and ambition as a work of synthesis... This book is scholarly and readable, bursting with fully documented examples and authoritative coverage of a vast swathe of 17th-century history, written on a broad canvas but accessible and compelling. It represents a worthy distillation of several decades of Parker's scholarship, and should provide food for thought for academic historians and interested readers alike."-Penny Roberts, BBC History Magazine -- Penny Roberts BBC History Magazine "A must read that shows how climate change 350 years ago can serve as a harbinger of the possible human consequences of today's rapidly changing climate. Essential. All levels/libraries."-Choice Choice "A work of formidable erudition and scope from a renowned British authority on early modern history."-The Financial Times Financial Times "[A] brilliant and mulifaceted approach to the global 17th century."-Robert E. Scully, S.J., America Magazine -- Robert E. Scully, S.J. America Winner of a 2014 British Academy Medal. -- Medal The British Academy "This is a colossal book, literally and metaphorically. Reading it reminded me of the exhilaration of first reading Braudel's Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II. Parker's book has the same combination of rich detail, global

The winner of the 2012 Heineken Prize for History, Geoffrey Parker is Andreas Dorpalen Professor of History and Associate of the Mershon Center at The Ohio State University. He lives in Columbus, OH.