Additional information
by Jean-Baptiste Fressoz (Author), Fabien Locher (Author), Gregory Elliott (Translator)
"If you want to understand the long path to the climate crisis, read this book." -Deborah Coen, Professor of History and the History of Science and Medicine, Yale University
Politicians and scientists have debated climate change for centuries in times of rapid changeNothing could seem more contemporary than climate change. Yet, in Chaos in the Heavens, Jean-Baptiste Fressoz and Fabien Locher show that we have been thinking about and debating the consequences of our actions upon the environment for centuries. The subject was raised wherever history accelerated: by the Conquistadors in the New World, by the French revolutionaries of 1789, by the scientists and politicians of the nineteenth century, by the European imperialists in Asia and Africa until the Second World War. Climate change was at the heart of fundamental debates about colonisation, God, the state, nature, and capitalism. From these intellectual and political battles emerged key concepts of contemporary environmental science and policy. For a brief interlude, science and industry instilled in us the reassuring illusion of an impassive climate. But, in the age of global warming, we must, once again, confront the chaos in the heavens.
Author Biography
Jean-Baptiste Fressoz is a historian of science and technology, previously at Imperial College London, now based in Paris at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He is the author of L'Apocalypse joyeuse. Une histoire du risque technologique and The Shock of the Anthropocene (with C. Bonneuil).
Fabien Locher is a historian of science, technology and environment at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. He is the author of Le Savant et la Tempête. Etudier l'atmosphère et prévoir le temps au XIXe siècle.
Number of Pages: 288
Dimensions: 1 x 9.3 x 6.3 IN
Publication Date: March 12, 2024
