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The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century by William Rosen
estherbookster's review
2.0
I learned some things about history that I wasn't particularly aware had happened at the time. The writing style was okay. Educational, but not much else I feel I need to add.
kiramke's review
5.0
**Goodreads Advance Reader copy**
I'll be honest, I probably get more excited about an historical examination of famine than the average reader. That said, it doesn't take a history nut to enjoy The Third Horseman. The easy conversational tone and cheeky footnotes keep the narrative flowing while the new perspective and information make for a fascinating story.
The Third Horseman addresses the Great Famine of the early 14th century, looking at the interaction of climate, economics, and political intrigue in the creation of devastating events, and their particular effects on the common man. The story is very much seated in England (and laterally in France), using the reign of Edward II and the struggles over Scottish independence as a lens to view the famine and its effects.
I was not prepared for the heavy focus on England. The story could as easily be told from a variety of regional perspectives, and I was interested to read more about the rest of the continent. However the author is well aware of this, and, facing the impracticality of including every story line, chose the one that worked for him. It works for the reader as well; and the benefit of focusing primarily on one area is the level of detail it allows him to provide.
There are inevitably many theories explaining any era of history; our accounts are always biased towards the records that survive. Rosen expands those accounts by drawing from a variety of disciplines and sources. I appreciated the anthropological approach; the premise that how we organize ourselves as humans (as animals) starts with how we get food from the land. He pieces together climate data from dendrochronology and arctic ice core samples; gauges food distribution using ethnobotany and modern humanitarian efforts, botanical knowledge of plant production and economic studies of pricing, trade, and production; all along with the classic sources of historical records and chronicles.
The most interesting facet of this book is the way the author uses this varied information to sketch out the life of the lower classes in England. While the majority of surviving records focus on the nobility and the ecclesiastics, these new sources (I'm reading a proof copy, but a great number of the non-contemporary references seem to be papers and writings from the last decade) allow him to postulate what life was like for a peasant, a farmer, a townsman, a soldier. This is especially important when we're talking famine; as he says, often these crises are not a total lack of food, but a shortage; and the poor starve first.
Ultimately, the book paints a clear picture from our own history of how an ecological disturbance can become a catastrophe when combined with an unequal economic structure and capricious decision-making on a political level; and how it is the working classes who bear the brunt of that damage. It's a lesson we can't afford to ignore in the present.
I'll be honest, I probably get more excited about an historical examination of famine than the average reader. That said, it doesn't take a history nut to enjoy The Third Horseman. The easy conversational tone and cheeky footnotes keep the narrative flowing while the new perspective and information make for a fascinating story.
The Third Horseman addresses the Great Famine of the early 14th century, looking at the interaction of climate, economics, and political intrigue in the creation of devastating events, and their particular effects on the common man. The story is very much seated in England (and laterally in France), using the reign of Edward II and the struggles over Scottish independence as a lens to view the famine and its effects.
I was not prepared for the heavy focus on England. The story could as easily be told from a variety of regional perspectives, and I was interested to read more about the rest of the continent. However the author is well aware of this, and, facing the impracticality of including every story line, chose the one that worked for him. It works for the reader as well; and the benefit of focusing primarily on one area is the level of detail it allows him to provide.
There are inevitably many theories explaining any era of history; our accounts are always biased towards the records that survive. Rosen expands those accounts by drawing from a variety of disciplines and sources. I appreciated the anthropological approach; the premise that how we organize ourselves as humans (as animals) starts with how we get food from the land. He pieces together climate data from dendrochronology and arctic ice core samples; gauges food distribution using ethnobotany and modern humanitarian efforts, botanical knowledge of plant production and economic studies of pricing, trade, and production; all along with the classic sources of historical records and chronicles.
The most interesting facet of this book is the way the author uses this varied information to sketch out the life of the lower classes in England. While the majority of surviving records focus on the nobility and the ecclesiastics, these new sources (I'm reading a proof copy, but a great number of the non-contemporary references seem to be papers and writings from the last decade) allow him to postulate what life was like for a peasant, a farmer, a townsman, a soldier. This is especially important when we're talking famine; as he says, often these crises are not a total lack of food, but a shortage; and the poor starve first.
Ultimately, the book paints a clear picture from our own history of how an ecological disturbance can become a catastrophe when combined with an unequal economic structure and capricious decision-making on a political level; and how it is the working classes who bear the brunt of that damage. It's a lesson we can't afford to ignore in the present.
merricatct's review
2.0
This is the second book I've read by this author, and the second time I felt duped by the title of his book - the first time being Justinian's Flea, which was about anything BUT the plague for 99% of the book.
This should have been called "The Four Horsemen" or something like that, because the book was more about war than anything else, with cameos by plague, death, and famine. I don't know if the author thought that subtitling it with climate change would hook more readers or what, but it really wasn't the focus of this.
But hey, I learned way more than I was expecting to about the war for Scottish independence!
This should have been called "The Four Horsemen" or something like that, because the book was more about war than anything else, with cameos by plague, death, and famine. I don't know if the author thought that subtitling it with climate change would hook more readers or what, but it really wasn't the focus of this.
But hey, I learned way more than I was expecting to about the war for Scottish independence!
natemanfrenjensen's review
4.0
A really good book in the tragic tale of Edward II of England, the intelligence and drive of Isabella, with well done descriptions of Robert the Bruce and the drive for Scottish independence. The title’s subject received less attention than I would have liked, but what was presented was interesting and well written. The audiobook version has some audio inconsistencies, nothing fatal. Good enough that I am adding additional volumes on medieval history (which didn’t particularly interest me before) to my list.
julis's review
challenging
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Let’s get one thing out of the way: For the most part, this is not a book about the Great Famine of 1315-1317. The Famine is a participating character, yes, but mostly it’s about England, Scotland, and the Scottish wars of independence.
Which is a great read. I knew some (partisan) things about Robert the Bruce and Edward Longshanks but the book covers the wars in some detail, not letting either side get away with anything. Some attention is given to France and the HRE, but the vast majority of the book focuses on British politics.
And again, this is a sensible, entertaining look at an important era in British history.
… There’s just not much on the famine.
rebelswin's review
2.0
I really wanted an interesting book about the effects of climate change in the middle ages. What I got was mostly a mediocre history of Plantagenet England. Which is especially annoying since I recently read the very excellent history The Plantagenets by Dan Jones. I wanted analysis and discussion of how climate directly and indirectly interacted with these political and social conditions, but it was limited to jargon and off-hand comments shoe-horned into the narrative. I was desperate for him to slow down and dig into the details, cite some sources, go to first-hand accounts, but this never happened. (Disclaimer - I only finished half the book, and barely skimmed the rest.)
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