Includes bibliographical references (pages 588-621) and index.

Preface to the Abridged Edition -- Prologue: Did Someone Say "Climate Change"? -- Introduction: The Little Ice Age and the General Crisis -- PART I. THE PLACENTA OF THE CRISIS -- The Little Ice Age -- The General Crisis -- "Hunger is the Greatest Enemy" : The Heart of the Crisis -- Surviving in the Seventeenth Century -- PART II. ENDURING THE CRISIS -- The Great Enterprise in China, 1618/84 -- "The Great Shaking" : Russia and the Polish/Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1618/86 -- The "Ottoman tragedy," 1618/83 -- Bloodlands : Germany and its Neighbours, 1618/88 -- The Agony of the Iberian Peninsula, 1618/89 -- France in Crisis, 1618/88 -- The Stuart Monarchy : The Path to Civil War, 1603/42 -- Britain and Ireland from Civil War to Revolution, 1642/89 -- PART III. SURVIVING THE CRISIS -- The Mughals and their Neighbours -- Red Flag over Italy -- The Americas, Africa and Australia -- Getting it Right : Early Tokugawa Japan -- PART IV. Confronting the Crisis -- "Those Who Have No Means of Support" : The Parameters of Popular Resistance -- "People Who Hope Only For a Change" : Aristocrats, Intellectuals, Clerics and "Dirty People of No Name" -- "eople of Heterodox Beliefs...Who Will Join Up With Anyone Who Calls Them" : Disseminating Revolution -- PART V. BEYOND THE CRISIS -- Escaping the Crisis -- Warfare State or Welfare State? -- The Great Divergence -- Conclusion: The Crisis Anatomized -- Epilogue: It's the climate, stupid -- Chronology.

"An accessible synthesis of the prescient best seller exploring seventeenth-century catastrophe and the impact of climate change First published in 2013, Geoffrey Parker's prize-winning best seller Global Crisis analyzes the unprecedented calamities--revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, and regicides--that befell the mid-seventeenth-century world and wiped out as much as one-third of the global population, and reveals climate change to be the root cause. Examining firsthand accounts of the crises and scrutinizing the prevailing weather patterns during the 1640s and 1650s--longer and harsher winters, and cooler and wetter summers--Parker reveals evidence of disrupted growing seasons causing malnutrition, disease, a higher death toll, and fewer births. This new abridged edition distills the original book's prodigious research for a broader audience while retaining and indeed emphasizing Parker's extraordinary historical achievement: his dazzling demonstration of the link between climate change and worldwide catastrophe 350 years ago. Yet, the contemporary implications of his study are equally important: are we prepared today for the catastrophes that climate change could bring tomorrow? At half the original length, this user-friendly abridgment is ideal for students and general readers seeking a rapid handle on the key issues"-- Provided by publisher.