Overview

The weather has always been a traditional topic of conversation; it is probably the most common dialogue between human beings. But even at this perfectly ordinary, everyday level, there are indications that the weather is regarded with unease. It would seem that it is always warmer or colder than usual, or it rains too much or too little. It is quite obvious that some climates are harsher than others, and that historical climatic disasters have occurred, yet our apparent dread of the weather is puzzling, as we generally adapt to it remarkably well. The Weather in the Imagination is an analysis of the theories, scenarios and psychoses caused by climate. These fall into three main categories: anthropological and psychological; historical; and catastrophic. The first category has long served as a means of explaining human diversity: other people are different because they live under different skies. The second category is historical: climate as a way of illuminating the progress of history. It is called on to explain the dynamic of the historical process, the rise of certain civilizations and the stagnation or regression of others. The third category combines climate and catastrophe: what could destroy a civilization - or arouse the fear of humanity's total extinction - more effectively than a good climatic 'jolt'? The prototype of this kind of upheaval is the Flood, one of the most gripping and influential myths the human imagination has ever produced. Lucian Boia does not take sides in the current debates about climate; he does not affirm or question, exaggerate or play down global warming and its consequences, or try to forecast the weather of the future. What he does tell is another story, related yet separate, that runs parallel with the 'true' story of climate and its future: the story of a human imagination that has been stimulated, baffled, infuriated and sometimes even terrified, by the weather.

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9781861892140

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Reviews

'Today it's not just the British who are obsessed by the weather, but the whole world. Lucian Boia's timely book places current concerns about climate change into context and shows that people have been anxiously studying the sky for portents of doom since the beginning of history ... His cultural history of climate is dry in places, but has plenty of illuminating interludes.' - The Guardian '[Boia] reflects on the psychological and physical impact weather has had on history in the myths and memories of civilisations - typified by the great flood - or in shaping them. In doing so, he brings breadth and clarity to a much overlooked but historically profound subject.' The Herald, Glasgow

Author Information

Lucian Boia is Professor of History at the University of Bucharest. He is the author of Great Historians of the Modern Age (1991), La Fin du Monde: une Histoire sans Fin (1999), Romania: Borderland of Europe (Reaktion, 2001) and Forever Young: A Cultural History of Longevity (Reaktion, 2004).

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