The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History

All of us probably check the daily weather forecast to see how it will affect our plans. In fact, the weather portion of televised news is typically the highest rated segment, so much so that it now has its own channels and websites worldwide. And, like me, you likely know or suspect this is so.What I didn't know are some of the underlying causes for these atmospheric changes and the unintended consequences on macro as well as up-close-and-personal levels. William K. and Nicholas P. Klingamans' collaborative work, "The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History," is a remarkable exploration and portrait of how the weather can be affected by an unexpected event and literally the subsequent fall out on the course of human events.The triggering event for this journey is the April 1815 colossal eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. The blast was heard more than 900 miles away in Java by lieutenant-governor Thomas Stafford Raffles (in 1819 to be involved with the founding of the City and Colony of Singapore). Local British naval commanders explored the source of the noise and discovered days at noon that were pitch black with the smoke from the eruption and seas chocked full for up to three miles with volcanic pumice.Little did they know then that the soot, ash and particularly the sulphur plumes had blasted through the troposphere into the stratosphere, or highest level of the atmosphere, to combine with water and form a sulphuric acid aerosol cloud that would circulate around the globe driven by the "polar vortex" winds and within a year reflect back sunlight to cool parts of the Earth in more temperate zones.It is now 1816 and this is where the story really takes off: the War of 1812 for the Americans has ended; the British under Wellington have defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and exiled him to Saint Helena; the French are still struggling to realize a government based on republican or monarchy concepts; most of the underprivileged and poor in Ireland, France and other parts of Europe are just barely making ends meet; Jane Austin is writing "Emma", Shelley Bysshe Shelley penning "Mont Blanc" and traveling in Europe with Mary Godwin - soon to be telling her own tale, "Frankenstein" - and George Gordon Byron completing "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "The Prisoner of Chillon" epic poems. A dynamic canvas against which tumultuous events will rapidly unfold.Through painstaking collection of local almanacs, diary entries, newspaper articles, legislative records and other histories the Klingamans have woven the threads into a tapestry depicting the unexpected impact of sustained cold, rain, flooding, wide crop failures and unprepared governments on lives from the very rich to the very poor - as if it were today. They follow the story lines through to 1817 and beyond on the broad social and selected personal themes.If there is any criticism it might be with the repetition of some of the weather descriptions though, I suspect, this is by design: to draw us into the world as the people were living it then. It is a very different and refreshing approach to history - through the lens of meteorology.One of the principles of Chaos Theory is called the "Butterfly Effect," which essentially posits that small changes in the initial conditions lead to drastic changes in the results. Had a butterfly not flapped its wings at just the right point in space and time, say, a Brazilian jungle, would a hurricane in China have not occurred? Might the same be said about the debated causes of global warming today - except that some of these are man-made so the consequences may not be so arbitrary...

This is a good overview of the effects of the Tambora eruption on the European and America societies. A lot less coverage on other parts of the world. Go elsewhere for that.

The Year Without Summer: 1816 by William and Nicholas Klingaman is a fine account of the results of massive volcanic ash cloud on the world's weather. This is a fine book by a historian and a meteorologist to give us both aspects of the events of 1815-1816.The book begins in the Dutch East Indies, modern Indonesia, where a number of the world's most massive volcanic eruptions have occurred. Mount Tambora blew in a massive explosion, sending gas and ash high into the atmosphere, so high in fact that the accumulative effect of all the material was to cool the earth by an average of several degrees the next year.The book itself moves quickly to the effects on temperatures and the seasons in North America (Canada and the US) and Europe (focusing mainly on Britain, Ireland, France, Switzerland). The lack of consistent records for Asian cultures unfortunately excludes them from this story. The reader will be surprised by the disastrous weather on states that were still mainly agricultural. In that era, one bad harvest season could lead to famine and thousands or tens of thousands of deaths.I was surprised by the fact that there really was no summer that year. When you hear phrases like that, one has a tendency to take them with a grain of salt. In this case, it was genuinely true. Snow fell in northeastern US in June, cold rain fell on Switzerland all summer and France's crops failed so that the newly-installed Bourbon king feared another revolution.The book itself deals with the disaster with hundreds of vignettes of suffering and fear of the famous and the common people. The only criticism I have of this very enjoyable book is that there is simply too little on Tambora, the creator of these disasters. The description of the eruption was all too brief with too little hard data. How high was Tambora before and after? How many islands of "the Indies" were rendered uninhabitable? I wanted to know a lot more about Tambora itself.On the whole though, this is an enjoyable read that really illuminated the times as well as the disaster of 1816. I recommend this book with four stars.

These authors have an interesting voice and style. The book captured my attention immediately and the rest of the book did not let me down. The authors have a way of telling history like it was a story. (Much like Shannon does with the biographies of Kit Carson and Jim Bridger) I really enjoyed how the author quoted people of the day by using actual letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings. Not only will the reader learn about how the year without summer started but the reader will also learn its influence on politics and laws, on charity and embargoes and so much more.The book contains small histories of people like Lord Baron, Percy Shelly, Louis XVIII, Thomas Jefferson, and Madison. Some of this was not directly related to the year without summer but is interesting nonetheless while much of it was directly related to the volcano's aftermath.The nice thing about the structure of the book is within the chapters, the text is broken into small bits, so you can read for a few minutes, completing the section and come back to the book later without trying to 'figure out' where you were in the 'story'.I liked this book so much that I have recommended it to several of my closest friends and relatives.

This is an inteserting book, easy to read and well researched, but I do completely agree with Sean Collins who in his review writes "... that the author, at times, strayed from the subject. He tried to include a history of the period, in order to acqauint the reader with the times of which he wrote. This is all well and good, but eventually he tended to over-analyse the historical narrative, and you were inclined to forget the reason for the book, and it's title." The book could have been half the length! The same agricultural effects of the volcanic cloud was repeated many many times. Finally my copy contained two sets of pages 213-244...

I read the preview of this book and thought it was going to be great. Sadly I was disappointed by the large amount of general history the writer has included, especially the history of the Americas. Quite a bit of the history didn't seem all that relevant to the context of the book to be honest. Having said that, the writers style is easy to read and accessible to all levels of knowledge. It's clearly a book that a number of people have enjoyed, it just didn't hit the spot for me. Definitely a book for the US reader.

Exactly what am I supposed to be reading here? So many instances of the text going off at a tangent, talking about anything else other than the weather. Skipped bits, got 20% and still the same. Yawn.

This is a remarkable book! If you ask yourself why you should read a book about the effects of climatology on social history - don't hesitate to read this book. The climatology is pitched at a very accessible level, and the social history is presented through the eyes and experiences of real people - from Presidents to peasants. I was totally absorbed.The Klingamans - father & son - have styles which merge and complement each other almost seamlessly. They never forget that they are telling a story for those of us who know little or nothing of this volcanic eruption, and the link to its huge and lasting impact on the whole of our planet.

I found this book fascinating from beginning to end.