Historical Perspectives on Climate Change

by James Rodger Fleming

This intriguing volume provides a thorough examination of the historical roots of global climate change as a field of inquiry, from the Enlightenment to the late twentieth century. Based on primary and archival sources, the book is filled with interesting perspectives on what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past. Chapters explore climate and culture in Enlightenment thought; climate debates in early America; the development of international networks of observation; the scientific transformation of climate discourse; and early contributions to understanding terrestrial temperature changes, infrared radiation, and the carbon dioxide theory of climate. But perhaps most important, this book shows what a study of the past has to offer the interdisciplinary investigation of current environmental problems.

Genres: History, Science

208 pages, Paperback

First published August 12, 1998

About the author

James Rodger Fleming, is a historian of science and technology, and the Charles A. Dana Professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Colby College, and author of the book Fixing the Sky: The Checkered History of Weather and Climate Control.