The Third Horseman

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How a seven year cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history In May 1315, it started to rain It didn t stop anywhere in north Europe until August Next came the four coldest winters in a millennium Two separate animal epidemics killed nearly 80 percent of northern Europe s livestock Wars between Scotland and England, France and Flanders, and two rival claimants to the Holy Roman Empire destroyed all remaining farmland After seven years, the combination of lost harvests, warfare, and pestilence would claim six million lives one eighth of Europe s total population William Rosen draws on a wide array of disciplines, from military history to feudal law to agricultural economics and climatology, to trace the succession of traumas that caused the Great Famine With dramatic appearances by Scotland s William Wallace, and the luckless Edward II and his treacherous Queen Isabella, history s best documented episode of catastrophic climate change comes alive, with powerful implications for future calamities. Download The Third Horseman – kino-fada.fr I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.It is hard for me to know how to review this book On one had it was really interesting I like non fiction and I was excited to read it There was war, climate change, exploration, political machinations and all the things that make history interesting On the other hand, I feel like the book was trying to be too many things Was it a book about Vikings or the war of Scottish independence Was it about famine and the impact on the peasantry Was it about the I won this in a Goodreads giveaway.It is hard for me to know how to review this b...William Rosen is at it again The Third Horseman wonderfully combines history and science to make an exciting book on Europe in the 14th Century.Rosen is a popular historian, and this is the third book I ve read by him Although his background seems to be from the editing and publishing world, he seems to have now carved a niche for himself in the popular history sphere.The Third Horseman is of course drawing our attention to the mythical third horseman of the apocalypse, who brings famine in hi Will...Not a lot of people know that Europe s population started to drop before the Black Death hit in the mid 14th century, the subject of this book As the subtitle indicates, a major cause of the famines that ravaged Northern Europe was climate change not global, but localized to Northern Europe.The author does a good job of explaining all the pieces of the puzzle, starting with the Medieval Warm Period which allowed the Vikings to flourish and the population to climb , continuing with feudalism Not a lot of people know that Europe s population started to drop before the Black Death hit in the mid 14th century, the subject of this book As the subtitle indicates, a major cause of the famines that ravaged Northern Europe was climate change not global, but localized to Northern Europe.The author does a good job of explaining all the pieces of the puzzle, starting with the Medieval Warm Period which allowed the Vikings to flourish and the population to climb , continuing with feudalism manorialism, the Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Empire, and finishing with the onset of the Little Ice Age which started with two years of almost daily rain I now have a lotsympathy for poor Edward II It wasn t all his fault.Although it helps to be somewhat familiar with the period, the a...I bought this book thinking it would be about the Medieval Climate Anomaly and the Great Famine of the 14th Century Color me surprised, it s really about Edward II and Robert Bruce That would be OK, were the subtitl...Goodreads Advance Reader copy I ll be honest, I probably getexcited 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 i Goodreads Advance Reader copy I ll be honest, I probably getexcited about an historical examination of famine than the average reader That said, it doesn t take a history nut to ...I really could not wait to review this book so aggravating did I find it I kept wondering what were the author s intentions while I slogged through the book Did he want to write a book about climate change and not have enough to say Did he want to write about the famine of the 14th century and again not have enough to say Or did he want to write ab...won in Goodreads giveaway A well researched, and detailed history of the benighted 14th century,full of wars,political machinations,territorial disputes,nation building and grabbing, weather extremes, crop failures, animal epidemics, overuse of available farmland,inevitable famine and wide spread starvation the third horseman rather like some of the third world countries we hear about on the news these days, for those who have been paying attention.There s no natural disaster that man can t won in Goodreads giveaway A well researched, and detailed history of the benighted 14th century,full of wars,political machinations,territorial disputes,nation building and grabbing, weather extremes, crop failures, animal epidemics, overuse of available farmland,inevitable famine and wide spread starvation the third horseman rather like some of the third world countries we hear about on the news these days, for those who have been paying attent...This was a greatly disappointing book It doesn t know what it wants to be To look at the title, you d think this would primarily be a book about how climate change 700 years ago caused a famine in Europe And yeah, there is some of that You get that in the first chapter Then it veers elsewhere The heart of this book focuses on the reigns of Edward I and Edward II of England AKA the kings from the movie Braveheart You get the Edwards fighting the Scots, and the second Edward flopping with This was a greatly disappointing book It doesn t know what it wants to be To look at the title, you d think this would primarily be a book about how climate change 700 years ago caused a famine in Europe And yeah, there is some of that You get that in the first chapter Then it veers elsewhere The heart of this book focuses on the reigns of Edward I and Edward II of England AKA the kings from the movie Braveheart You get the Edwards fighting the Scots, and the second Edward flopping with everyone until his wife and her love have him overthrown and killed That s the real focus of the book.But the title talks about climate change and famine The fuck Oh, there is talk of it throughout The opening chapter, as stated above, ... I received this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.William Rosen paints a compelling, if depressing, picture of life in early 14th century Europe, focusing specifically on the Great Famine of 1315 22 seven years of almost unimaginably bad luck featuring torrential rains, frigid winters and decimating disease.What makes Rosen s book unique is his marriage of cogent historical narrative he s quite a good popular historian with trenchant scientific analysis The former is better than th I received this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.William Rosen pain...Pros lots of information, political components told like a story with digressions on economics, weather, etc., Cons I personally found the weather talk though essential to the subject of the book dryly told and boringly technicalThis is an examination of the effects of the end of the medieval warm period during the reign of King Edward II of England The book gives some background into the population explosion and increased farming that took place during the 400 hundred years when Europe e Pros lots of information, political components told like a...

The Third Horseman
  • 09 July 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 320 pages
  • 0670025895
  • William Rosen
  • The Third Horseman