Global Crisis – War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century

Product as described, well packaged, timely.

Geoffrey Parker didn't give the Potosi silver mine a single mention. Potosi output flattened out around 1600AD & declined precipitously after 1610AD. (I too have read "The Great Wave!") It is handy to compare Imperial Spain with its bevy of Northern European "Tiger" economies with the USA and its Asian suppliers. When its money went bad after 1610, Spain closed up and left Northern Europe to fall into financial crisis. Ergo, Donald Trump & MAGA aren't so unique after all!

Packed with information on a truly global scale. One needs perseverance and to step back occasionally as not to be submerged in what is actually an appalling century.Before this book, the 17th century was my favourite. I was seduced by the big personalities, the art etc. But now I realise it was hellish for anybody but the most privileged.Just one gripe: tighter editing would have avoided some errors, like promising 5 drivers of something, bit only naming 4. Never mind - it is a gigantic undertaking and I loved the self-deprecating humour in the opening.A sobering read which should be mandatory for all politician who are trying to come to grips with climate change and its attendant crisis.

This book is one of the very best I have ever read. Huge amountmof scholarship. masses of evidence. simply put.And making some lovey points, even if quoting from Voltaire that the key issues that made life for people fall off a cliff were the combo of climate change, religious strife, poor government, and overpopulation. Sounds familiar. Lovely contrasts between those places that survived and grew, and those that failed.Worth reading alongside the more pedantic but massively thorough history of the back death by Ole J. Benedictow or the easier read of Phillip Ziegler.

Sensational. I am now a fan of 17th century history, in a way that I didn't feel possible before reading this.