Tambora: The Eruption That Changed the World

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About Tambora: The Eruption That Changed The World

Product Description Title: Tambora( The Eruption That Changed the World) Binding: Hardcover Author: GillenD'ArcyWood Publisher: PrincetonUniversityPress Review "Stimulating and engaging, Tambora provides an excellent overview of the worldwide repercussions that followed the eruption of a single tropical volcano. Weaving together an abundance of newly gathered historical information, Wood emphasizes humanity's disquieting vulnerability to natural events. This book represents a marvelous piece of work." ―Jelle Zeilinga de Boer, coauthor of Volcanoes in Human History: The Far-Reaching Effects of Major Eruptions "Gillen D'Arcy Wood's Tambora takes us on a fascinating journey through the world of 1815-17, when particles from the greatest volcanic eruption since the Ice Age lingered high in the atmosphere. This meticulously researched and beautifully written book ventures far beyond tales of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein to document an apocalyptic global catastrophe that affected millions of people living as far afield as the Arctic and North America. Wood has crafted a powerful, definitive, and thought-provoking narrative." ―Brian Fagan, author of The Attacking Ocean "Wood makes the compelling case that the global effects of the Tambora eruption have been largely underappreciated―and the strength of his argument rests on the accumulation of evidence. Tambora is a rude awakening to the potential societal consequences of these fascinating geological events." ―Guilherme Gualda, Vanderbilt University " Tambora is a thought-provoking and original synthesis by an esteemed scholar that draws together vast amounts of previously unrelated material." ―James Rodger Fleming, author of Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control "[A] provocative book that confidently leaps from volcanology to lit crit by way of history. . . . [E]arth-shaking . . . told with gusto." ---Robbie Millen, The Times "The greatest volcanic eruption of modern times occurred in 1815 on the small island of Tambora in the East Indies. It spawned the most extreme weather in thousands of years. In what contemporaries described as the 'year without a summer,' its immense ash cloud encircled and cooled the Earth. While historians have mostly ignored the decades of worldwide misery, starvation, and disease that followed, Wood ( The Shock of the Real), professor of English at the University of Illinois, remedies this oversight, combining a scientific introduction to volcanism with a vivid account of the eruption's cultural, political, and economic impact that persisted throughout the century." ― Publishers Weekly "Too often, the claim that a book is tackling a subject 'that changed the world' is pure hyperbole. Not in this case, however. . . . Gillen D'Arcy Wood offers up this fascinating story of Tambora as a cautionary tale about what might lie ahead of us--a tale that, like Frankenstein, warns against the consequences of technological hubris." ---Fiona Capp, The Age "In example of example, Wood expertly explains the volcano's effects on climate and agriculture. . . . Wood leaves no doubt how sensitive and far-reaching Earth's climate system is--and how vulnerable humans are to the natural world." ― Science News "Winner of the 2015 Michelle Kendrick Memorial Book Prize, Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts" "Wood's compelling and at times terrifying 'cautionary tale' details the global effects of the April 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. . . . This extremely detailed work draws together disparate events in a fascinating way. It's in-depth enough for climate science students and offers something different for those wishing to know more about romantic literature; at the same time the work is accessible for popular-science readers. For large public libraries and academic collections." ---Henrietta Verma, Library Journal "Here, Wood comprehensively looks at all these effects, unearthing much previously ignore