From the author of The Silk Roads comes a history of the relationship between humanity, our environment, and how the increasing speed of climate change will affect civilisation in the long-term.
‘A wise, well-researched and essential study for our precarious times.’
– Independent
From the author of The Silk Roads comes a history of the relationship between humanity, our environment, and how the increasing speed of climate change will affect civilisation in the long-term.
Climate change and its influences have always been with us – from the fall of the Moche civilization in South America that came about because of the cyclical pressures of El Niño to volcanic eruptions in Iceland that affected Egypt and helped bring the Ottoman empire to its knees. Time and time again, history shows us that when past empires failed to act sustainably, they were ultimately met with catastrophe.
So in this current era of rising sea levels, escalating natural disasters, and increasing temperatures, how can we as a global community respond? Through brilliant historical writing and cutting-edge scientific research, Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed aims to radically reframe the way we look at the world and our future.
Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford University and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World was named one of the ‘Books of the Decade’ 2010-2020 by the Sunday Times. The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World won the Human Sciences prize of the Carical Foundation in 2019. The Earth Transformed was named The Times History Book of the Year 2023.
This event will be chaired by Conor Kostick, a novelist and historian based at the Centre for Environmental Humanities, Trinity College Dublin where he is part of a team researching over 2,000 years of ancient and medieval history to better understand the relationship between climate stress and warfare. His many books include The Social Structure of the First Crusade; Strongbow; and The Siege of Jerusalem.