
The Year Without Summer
1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History
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Narrated by:
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David Colacci
About this listen
1816 was a remarkable year - mostly for the fact that there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, allowing for excessive rain, frost, and snowfall through much of the Northeastern US and Europe in the summer of 1816.
In the US, the extraordinary weather produced food shortages, religious revivals, and extensive migration from New England to the Midwest. In Europe, the cold and wet summer led to famine, food riots, the transformation of stable communities into wandering beggars, and one of the worst typhus epidemics in history. 1816 was the year Frankenstein was written. It was also the year Turner painted his fiery sunsets. All of these things are linked to global climate change - something we are quite aware of now, but that was utterly mysterious to people in the 19th century, who concocted all sorts of reasons for such an ungenial season.
Making use of a wealth of source material and employing a compelling narrative approach featuring peasants and royalty, politicians, writers, and scientists, The Year Without Summer by William K. Klingaman and Nicholas P. Klingaman examines not only the climate change engendered by the volcano, but also its effects on politics, the economy, the arts, and social structures.
©2013 William K. Klingaman and nicholas P. Klingaman (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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A comprehensive catalog of the most devastating and deadly events-natural or man-made-in human history. If you follow the news it can seem like injury, sickness, and death are now constant, inescapable occurrences that threaten us every second of every day. But such catastrophic events - as terrible and frightening as they are - have been happening for as long as mankind has walked the Earth.... and even before. From ancient volcanoes and floods to epidemics of cholera and smallpox to Hitler's mass killings in the 20th century, humanity's continued existence has always seemed perilous.
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Fantastic account of disasters!
- By Gardenstate Reader on 12-30-19
By: John Withington
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Before the Dawn
- Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
- By: Nicholas Wade
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Just in the last three years a flood of new scientific findings, driven by revelations discovered in the human genome, has provided compelling new answers to many long-standing mysteries about our most ancient ancestors, the people who first evolved in Africa and then went on to colonize the whole world. Nicholas Wade weaves this host of news-making findings together for the first time into an intriguing new history of the human story before the dawn of civilization.
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Amazing information
- By Albert on 06-15-07
By: Nicholas Wade
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Floodpath
- The Deadliest Man-Made Disaster of 20th Century America and the Making of Modern Los Angeles
- By: Jon Wilkman
- Narrated by: Charles Constant
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
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Driven by eyewitness accounts and combining urban history with a life-and-death drama and a technological detective story, Floodpath grippingly reanimates the reality behind LA noir fictions like the classic film Chinatown. In an era of climate change, increasing demand on water resources, and a neglected American infrastructure, the tragedy of the St. Francis Dam has never been more relevant.
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Incredible story
- By C. Jackson on 04-07-21
By: Jon Wilkman
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Dinosaurs Rediscovered
- The Scientific Revolution in Paleontology
- By: Michael J. Benton
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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In Dinosaurs Rediscovered, leading paleontologist Michael J. Benton gathers together all the latest paleontological evidence, tracing the transformation of dinosaur study from its roots in antiquated natural history to an indisputably scientific field. Among other things, the book explores how dinosaur remains are found and excavated, and especially how paleontologists read the details of dinosaurs' lives from their fossils - their colors, their growth, and even whether we will ever be able to bring them back to life.
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Great overview of advances in dinosaur paleo
- By Keegan on 03-28-20
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The Demon Under The Microscope
- By: Thomas Hager
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. This incredible discovery was sulfa, the first antibiotic medication. In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of the drug that shaped modern medicine.
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Great Book!!!!!
- By Amazon Customer on 05-21-08
By: Thomas Hager
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Life on a Young Planet
- The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth
- By: Andrew H. Knoll
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites - such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty.
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The Earliest Life
- By Arden on 02-16-20
By: Andrew H. Knoll
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The Last Volcano
- A Man, a Romance, and the Quest to Understand Nature's Most Magnificent Fury
- By: John Dvorak
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Volcanoes have fascinated - and terrified - people for ages. They have destroyed cities and ended civilizations. In this book, John Dvorak, the acclaimed author of Earthquake Storms, looks into the early years of volcanology and its "father", Thomas Jaggar. Jaggar was the youngest of five scientists to investigate the explosion of Mount Pelee in Martinique, which leveled the entire city of St. Pierre and killed its entire population in two minutes.
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Solid recounting of a pivotal volcanologist
- By GeoMap55 on 01-06-23
By: John Dvorak
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50 Great Myths of Human Evolution
- Understanding Misconceptions About Our Origins
- By: John H. Relethford
- Narrated by: Steven Menasche
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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50 Great Myths of Human Evolution uses common misconceptions to explore basic theory and research in human evolution and strengthen critical thinking skills for lay audiences, listeners, and students. Includes myths such as: "Humans lived at the same time as dinosaurs"; "Lucy was so small because she was a child"; "Our ancestors have always made fire"; and "There is a strong relationship between brain size and intelligence."
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Best evolution book I have read.
- By Anthony W. Shallin on 07-02-18
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks
- Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them
- By: Donald R. Prothero
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks tells the fascinating stories behind the discoveries that shook the foundations of geology. In 25 chapters, Donald R. Prothero recounts the scientific detective work that shaped our understanding of geology, from the unearthing of exemplary specimens to tectonic shifts in how we view the inner workings of our planet.
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More about scientists than science
- By Aunt Vee on 06-14-20
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Mighty Storms of New England
- The Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, and Floods That Shaped the Region
- By: Eric P. Fisher
- Narrated by: Christopher P. Brown
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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The New England landscape has long been battered by some of the most intense weather in the United States. The region breeds one of the highest concentrations of meteorologists in the country for a reason. One can experience just about anything except a dust storm. Knowing the past is a critical part of understanding and forecasting the weather. Meteorologist Eric Fisher takes an in-depth look at some of the most intense weather events in New England's history.
By: Eric P. Fisher
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Plagues, Pandemics and Viruses
- From the Plague of Athens to COVID-19
- By: Heather E. Quinlan
- Narrated by: Samara Naeymi
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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It can come in waves - like tidal waves. It changes societies. It disrupts life. It ends lives. As far back as 3000 B.C.E. (the Bronze Age), plagues have stricken mankind. COVID-19 is just the latest example, but history shows that life continues. It shows that knowledge and social cooperation can save lives. Viruses are neither alive nor dead and are the closest thing we have to zombies. Their only known function is to replicate themselves, which can have devastating consequences on their hosts.
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Some good info but
- By Dogs Land on 10-23-24
What listeners say about The Year Without Summer
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Tyler
- 07-23-24
19th century slow apocalypse
Surprisingly devastating effects of a volcanic eruption. The re many good details of life in the west of the time. Europe was especially vulnerable because it had been at war for decades in the Napoleonic wars which had only just ended.
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- masa641
- 11-22-24
A Terrific Blending of Anthropological and Earth Histories
Great details help blend a deep understanding of how one volcanic eruption drove histories throughout the Northern Hemisphere for many years.
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- SheWhoReads
- 12-02-24
A decidedly western view
I enjoyed hearing about how the volcanic eruption changed and shaped so many things, but it really only focuses on Western Europe and the US, with a little Quebec thrown in for good measure. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or just these authors’ focus, but I feel like there’s a lot left out. What about Native American impressions of what was happening? Or Asian and Pacific Islander POVs? It was a long book, but I would have listened to a longer book if there was more of a global perspective.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kent Barnett
- 01-19-24
Good history lesson.
How people create hysteria and how easy it is to fall back into that mindset.
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- Lin Waters
- 09-26-23
Mind blown!
I absolutely love this book! I have listened to it in entirety several time! Absolutely fascinating how an event on one side of the world could effect some many places
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- Grendel
- 09-12-23
A 21st Century view of a Mysterious Event
The level of detail and scope of this book was amazing, the author(s) poured over documents that spanned all the major countries of the world and delved deep into them to provide an extremely accurate view into the effects of something we squabble over today. The Climate and it's changes.
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- Dominic
- 08-20-20
Very informative as presented
A very comprehensive presentation of life at the time as they all were experiencing a very unusual time with the effects from a volcanic eruption in the South Pacific
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- Faycal Ikhouane
- 11-24-22
Intersting story
In April 1815 mount Tambora in Indoneasia erupted (intensity 7 in a scale of 8). The book relates the events that were a consequence of the eruption, in particular the intense cold that many parts of the globe experienced. The summer of 1816 was more like a cold winter which led to the loss of harvests and famine. The book describes with great details what happened in the US, in some details the effects of the eruption in Europe, and gives a brief overview of what happened in Asia because of a lack of data.
The authors follows also the relationship between some known authors and the year without summer, in particular Mary Shelly and her novel Frenkenstein.
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- Ellen NB
- 02-24-20
Good audiobook to fall asleep to
I was expecting a gripping story of the biggest volcanic eruption in recorded history, a sympathetic focus on Indonesians and colonizers and Tambora's impact on them, and accounts of the Year Without a Summer and its impact around the world.
While this book does touch on these, and it does discuss some migrations triggered by crop failures, the reader drowns in facts, figures, and exhaustive and repetitive accounts of unseasonal weather week by week, sometimes day by day, including local temperatures, precipitation, flood levels, how many days it rained, how many days it snowed, etc, etc. Other chapters embark on long recitals of crop failures, right down to individual regions' and towns' losses of oats, wheat, corn, potatoes. As harvests fail, recitals change to local bread prices and food riots. The audiobook format and sonorous narration don't do the book any favors, but these repetitive passages tend to obscure any sense of an overarching narrative or point.
The book does enliven its meteorological survey with biographical accounts of key historical figures and a few colorful characters connected with the stormy weather of 1816: Mary and Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, Napoleon (why?), Robert Peel, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and ambassasor John Quincy Adams in London.
That's the book's strength: it is an exhaustive compendium of firsthand accounts and data for the Year of No Summer in England and New England. It's just the most boring account of an volcanic eruption I've ever encountered.
The book's biggest weakness, as it inadvertently admits in the final chapter's whirlwind summary of Tambora's impact on India, China, and a few other areas outside Europe, is that non-English sources were "inaccessible" [to the authors].
I feel like a book published in 2019 on Tambora should be global in scope, not limit its focus almost exclusively to Britain, northwestern Europe, and the eastern seaboard of the US.
Happily, there IS a book that explores the drama of the Tambora eruption and its impacts all over the worls. Namely, Gillan D'arcy Wood's 2014 book on Tambora. The problem with that book is that it enthusiastically pounces on various world trends impossible fallout from the timbre eruption where it's difficult to prove cause and effect. In other words, that book is more speculative and interpretive, whereas this one focuses on collecting data and primary sources.
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- alaina davis
- 09-02-24
encompasses global fall out
loved that it showed laws that were made because of food shortages and how different countries handled it.
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