The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization

An exploration of the centuries-long pattern of human adaptation to the challenges of an ever-changing climate—and how climate change gave rise to civilization

“A compelling and fascinating book.”—Nature

Humanity evolved in an Ice Age in which glaciers covered much of the world. But starting around 15,000 years ago, temperatures began to climb. Civilization and all of recorded history occurred in this warm period, known as the Holocene—the long summer of the human species. People in the Near...