Ice Ages: Their Social and Natural History

Description:

What causes Ice Ages? How did we learn about them? What were their affects on the social history of humanity? Allan Mazur's book tells the appealing history of the scientific 'discovery' of Ice Ages. How we learned that much of the Earth was repeatedly covered by huge ice sheets, why that occurred, and how the waning of the last Ice Age paved the way for agrarian civilization and, ultimately, our present social structures. The book discusses implications for the current 'controversies' over anthropogenic climate change, public understanding of science, and (lack of) 'trust in experts'. In parallel to the history and science of Ice Ages, sociologist Mazur highlights why this is especially relevant right now for humanity. Ice Ages: Their Social and Natural History is an engrossing combination of natural science and social history: glaciology and sociology writ large.

* Accessible and engagingly written natural history of Ice Ages, covering history of science and social effects on humanity

* Explains the importance of the end of the last great glaciation for the development of agrarian civilization: a topic rarely explored by writers in either the physical or social sciences

* Introduces social scientists to the physical world of Ice Ages, and natural scientists to the implications of major climate change to human society

* The long history of climate and society is germane to present concerns about our warming climate