The Earth Transformed: An Untold History

Frankopan (global history, Oxford Univ.; The New Silk Roads) narrates his work examining how climate change has altered human history and how, in turn, people have dramatically contributed to it. As a narrator, Frankopan brings a sense of immediacy and intimacy to his carefully researched and timely work, transporting listeners through a sweeping history of climatic shifts and drawing connections to today’s debate about anthropogenic climate change. Frankopan describes many instances where human history was altered by climate: Hitler’s unsuccessful Operation Barbarossa, complicated by a brutal Russian winter; volcanic eruptions in the 530s and 540s CE, which ushered in a time of global cooling and political regime change; environmental disasters that brought down South America’s Moche civilization in 700 CE. Some communities were able to adapt to changes, but others were decimated by inflexibility.