Interdisciplinary Approaches to Premodern Societies and Environments – serie

In 536 CE, several contemporaries reported an unusual atmospheric phenomenon in which sunlight appeared to dim for an extended period. Although the historical sources periodically portray such rare occurrences, this event has recently been declared by some scholars as the cause of "the worst year to be alive" and a turning point between antiquity and the medieval period, sparking widespread public and academic interest.In "The Worst Year to Be Alive", Lee Mordechai argues that scholarly research on the 536 event has been shaped by public discourse through three successive waves of attention: the mid-1980s, the mid-to-late 1990s, and from 2008 to the present. Each wave lasted longer and attracted more interest than the one before, and each was marked by a different dominant interpretation. The first wave interpreted the 536 event as a volcanic eruption and used it as a framework to discuss the threat of nuclear war-then a pressing concern for scientists. The second wave proposed that it resulted from the impact or near-impact of a celestial body such as a comet or meteor, reflecting popular anxieties of the 1990s. The third and current wave, informed by new scientific findings, has rejected the impact theory and instead reinterprets the event as an early case of climate change. This latest wave has reached top-tier academic venues and captured global media attention.By blending history, science, and media analysis, Mordechai traces the evolving narrative of the 536 event and reveals how our present concerns, like anthropogenic climate change, shape our understanding of the past. He presents academic research and public discourse as intertwined: public conversations steer scholarly agendas and interpretation, while academic work can end up reinforcing prevailing public narratives.