William K. KlingamanReseñas

Fascinating book about the the eruption of Mt Tambora and how it drastically altered the weather around the world. A lot of anecdotal accounts, and what was going on politically, socially and economically in the United States, Great Britain, France and much of Europe.
A well documented book.

Both authors have PhD degrees, one in American History and one in meteorology, which helps to explain the depth of the research and the detail in writing. Then, once I figured out how the book was organized, reading became easier.

Mount Tambora exploded in April 1915 and the weather patterns around the world dramatically changed for nearly two years, but no one could figure out that the two events were related. Many theories for the extreme weather conditions were proposed, while crops failed and people were starving.

This is a part of history that I would have never learned about except that, as a genealogist, I had ancestors living in New England who migrated to Ohio during this timeframe and I'm always looking for the push/pull factors for migration. Previously I had no idea about the drought suffered in the United States during 1816--the year without a summer, I had assumed that the only reason for crop failure was the freezing temperatures during every month of the growing season. I also had no idea that Europe experienced the opposite precipitation extremes, rain and floods along with the cold temperatures, causing worse famine than in the United States.

After the describing the initial eruption, the authors used a timeline approach, following the United States and several European countries during specific time periods, then introduced several prominent people within those countries for whom information is available to tie the story together and better understand the local impact of the weather patterns. Or, as was sometimes the case, reveal the lack of both government and local understanding of the problems.

I appreciate the story and am glad I read the book, but it took a little longer to read and sometimes I felt like I was having to plough through a lot of detail.

This book was phenomenal. I have been reading a lot about World War II and many books told me information that I had never heard and others clarified details for me, however, this book was filled with details of what my parents and others of their generation went through after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the steps that were made by the government to fight in the war.

The Home Front was almost immediately changed by the entry into the war - the general population appeared stunned by the attack and the immediate declaration of war but since Christmas was so close and the attack so far away for those on the east coast, no immediate changes were made to people's actions. Still, the government set to work to get our armed forces in fighting stance.

Schools, housing, manufacturing, were prompted to prepare for the changes in society. School Administrators accelerated curriculum so that undergraduate degrees were 3 years instead of four, sometimes 2, so that students would stay in school. But enrollments declined up to 20% in 1942 when the draft age was lower to 20. Professional schools were also sped up - Medical Colleges changed from 4 years to 3, law schools from 3 to 2. Lower grades had their summer vacations changed to run from May to November so teenagers could help out on the farms with the harvest. One downfall of the shorter education time was disqualification of recruits for lack of arithmetic skills. Teachers were also in short supply having been drafted.

Because of the draft, there was an increase in marriages (originally married men were not classified as 1A but as 1B). Men who were recruited to work in the defense industry, found that when they moved to the cities that there was little housing for families in the area of the factories.

Seattle put workers into boats, trailers, garages, chicken coops, attics, and basements. Brooklyn Navy yard workers were housed in tenement barracks, Norfolk-Portsmouth sheltered 7,000 families in 100 trailer camps. Other workers slept in their cars, armchairs at boardinghouses. Frequently, factories would hire new workers only to lose more because of housing conditions.

But the home front had even more difficulties with supply chains (sound familiar?).

Due to the need for metal and rubber - once store shelves were empty of items they would not return until after the war. Refrigerators, radios, mixers, radiators, lawn mowers, toasters, dishwashers, percolators, phonographs, Xmas tree bulbs, electric razors, TVs, zippers, sewing machines, flashlights, irons, vacuum cleaners, plastic or metal ashtrays, coat hangers, playground equipment all became hot commodities after Pearl Harbor as items were added to the rationing list.

Beer was moved to Quart glass bottles to save metal on bottle caps.
Razor blades were restricted to 1 blade per adult male per week.
Panic buying showed a 25% increase in department store sales and some merchants actually asked shoppers to stop buying so much.

Clothing manufacturers made changes - eliminating pleats, trouser cuffs, shoulder pads, shortened suit coats, narrowed collars and lapels, and did away with the 2nd pair of pants.

Gasoline and tire rationing - nearly all the gas stations in the gas-rationed areas were dry; drivers stalked gasoline delivery trucks to follow them to their station of delivery so as to be first in line to fill up. Rubber was the main reason for gas rationing. Rubber tires were in short supply and even when the nation was informed about the shortage and the need to reduce non-essential travel, people still drove their vehicles for pleasure. By rationing gas, it was hoped that the tires that were currently on the vehicles could be maintained for the duration of the war.

Distilleries that could turn grain into 190 proof ethyl alcohol were ordered to make nothing else shutting down production of bourbon, rye, and gin.

War isn't cheap and FDR asked Congress to set a 100% levy on all individual incomes over $25,000 and on married couples over $50,000. This would have effected about 11,000 people including FDR and would only have generated about $200M revenue.
$25,000 in 1942 had the same "purchasing power" or "buying power" as $456,611.96 in 2022.

But the most demoralizing aspect on the home front was the lack of information as to the events of the war. Dangerous to the nation's morale was the military's inability to tell the public the truth.
CA congressman accused the War Dept of issuing "fake reports" (sound familiar?)

Newspapers, radio stations, and TV weren't permitted to give any "bad news" because the government didn't think the public could handle it. They weren't even allowed to give a weather report because spies might be able to use that information.

As more and more men went into the armed forces, the labor shortage became acute and the employment of women and Negros became a necessity that factory owners were not happy about. Unions frequently would not permit women members.

"Once women starting working at defense plants, aircraft executives acknowledged that their female employees required less supervision, suffered fewer accidents, inflicted less damage on tools, increased productivity, and were less likely to quit then men."

"Automakers, however, resisted as long as possible preferring qualified male workers but as the draft impacted the labor available, they were forced to consider other options." Labor unions were afraid that women workers would reduce the wage scales. Ford kept women away from the assembly lines until they were ordered by the War Dept to hire 12,000 women for the bomber plant in Willow Run but Ford fought its order because of inability to "define acceptable attire" for them.

Shipyards were no easier. The Intl Brotherhood of Boilermakers (union) did not accept women members. Union leaders said shipyards were too dangerous for women. As resistance lessened, most employers still refrained from hiring women over 25.

FDR in a fireside chat noted that businesses had no choice "In some communities, employers dislike to employ women. In others, they are reluctant to hire Negroes. In still others, older men are not wanted. We can no longer afford to indulge such prejudices or practices." Interesting that 80 years later we still have prejudices against women, blacks, and the elderly.

Unfortunately, I never got a chance to talk to either of my parents about their experiences during the war. I know that my father and several of his brothers worked at the shipyard in Baltimore. My parents were married during the war but because my father enlisted in the Merchant Marine, they were not living on their own, my mother was with her parents while my Dad was at sea. This book was tremendous at bringing to light the hardships and fears that civilians had to handle.

Seems like a book that should be read by the younger generations so that they could better understand deprivation.½

This was an interesting book that detailed the aftermath of the explosion of Mount Tambora and its consequences for the global climate. Interesting!

Like Winchester's Krakatoa, The Year Without Summer reveals a year of dramatic global change long forgotten by history

In the tradition of Krakatoa, The World Without Us, and Guns, Germs and Steel comes a sweeping history of the year that became known as 18-hundred-and-froze-to-death. 1816 was a remarkable year—mostly for the fact that there was no summer. As a result of a volcanic eruption in Indonesia, weather patterns were disrupted worldwide for months, allowing for excessive rain, frost, and snowfall through much of the Northeastern U.S. and Europe in the summer of 1816.

In the U.S., 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 nineteenth 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 this event, but also its effects on politics, the economy, the arts, and social structures.

In April of 1815, Mount Tambora in Indonesia erupted spectacularly, throwing immense amounts of ash and droplets of sulfuric acid into the atmosphere. By the next year, a good portion of the world was experiencing summer temperatures lower than any in living memory. Some areas were plagued by drought, others by seemingly perpetual torrential rains. Crops failed, and famine and unrest predictably followed. No one at the time knew what was causing this, although plenty of theories were put forward, and it wasn't until much later that the volcano's contribution was truly understood.

This book covers in some depth the effect of this weather on Europe and North America (with a lot of attention paid, in particular, to France, England, and the United States), including its influences on politics, economics, emigration, and literature. The writing is a bit dry, and it gets very, very repetitive, with endless, near-identical quotes from various local weather reports and news sources, in a way that feels more suitable for an academic tome than a supposedly popular work of historical non-fiction. And yet, it's rather compelling, nonetheless, and does leave one reflecting in interesting ways on the precariousness of the world and the highly contingent nature of history.½

In 1815, a volcano known as Tambora erupted in Indonesia, spewing lava, ash, and other assorted materials into the atmosphere. This was the direct cause of a global cooling that affected farmers and the economy for the entire year. This much is apparent from first-hand accounts of the times. From newspapers to personal journals, the authors scoured through information that in many cases was quite unreliable. There was no National Weather Service, no Royal Meteorological Society, they only had hearsay and personal testimonials. So for the authors to dig for such things and to find what they did is rather impressive.

First of all, Meteorology is not something I have ever really looked into. I know that the weather is a complex nonlinear system that can be modeled by the Navier-Stokes Equation, but that’s about as far as that goes. I know the general direction of weather in my country, I know about the influence of water temperatures, relative air masses, and other things on the weather. So in my case, it is somewhat easy to figure out about storms and the like. Also, we have advanced telecommunications that can at least warn us about a system. So it is little wonder that this had the effect it did on the world back in 1816.

This book is mainly about the effects that the aerosol contaminants from the volcanic eruption had on weather, but the authors try to take this one step further and state that it changed history. Thus it contains a narrative that discusses what people thought was going on and how the weather affected history. From King George and the Prince Regent to King Louis XVIII and Napoleon, a lot of different statesmen are included in here. The eruption had an effect on culture as well. With paintings containing more red than usual in the sunsets and the sky in general, the authors show that this was also the effect of the eruption.

All in all, this book was well done and quite informative. It wove together world history and meteorology in a way I did not expect.

People who think that Americans were united behind the war effort during World War 2 will be set straight by this fascinating, eye-opening look at the American home front during the first year of the war. Focusing on the year from Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, to December 7, 1942, the author examines all aspects of American life and how they were impacted by the war, with a particular emphasis on areas where the populace disagreed with, or went even further, such as rationing and hoarding.

However, the best parts of this highly readable and always compelling book focused on the little things a reader might not think of. How weather forecasts were vague, so as not to give information away to the enemy. Even sports announcers could not say that a ballgame had been rained out.

This riveting, outstanding, well-written book will hold a top place on my list of favorite books of 2019. It's one I'd highly recommend to those who love to read about American history.

(I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via Net Galley, in exchange for a fair and honest review.)

Disappointing, but that’s my fault; I’m used to books about volcanic disasters having lots and lots of geological details, while this one scarcely mentions Mt. Tambora, the protagonist (as it were). First author William K. Klingaman is an American history professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in year histories; previous books include histories of 1919, 1929, and 1941 (as well as books about the McCarthy Era, Abraham Lincoln, and the first century AD). Second author Nicholas P. Klingaman, who I assume is a son or nephew or something, is a meteorology professor at the University of Reading. The book got quite a few favorable reviews when it came out so I was pleased to acquire it, looking forward to discussions of subduction, upper mantle melting, magma volatile content, pyroclastic flow behavior, and atmospheric dispersion. Well, there’s a little of the last but the bulk of the book is “slice of life“descriptions from letters, newspaper articles, and other contemporary comments. Klingaman I focuses on well-known historical figures; making appearances are Stamford Raffles (who was actually fairly close to the eruption, for a European) in the Dutch East Indies; John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Joseph Smith Sr. in the US; Robert Peel, Lord Liverpool, the Prince Regent, Jane Austen and John Quincy Adams (US. Ambassador to England) in the UK; Louis XVIII, the Duke of Wellington (commander of the Allied occupation army) and Madame de Staëhl in France; and Byron, Shelley, and their miscellaneous lovers and hangers-on in Switzerland. Klingaman II is brought in from the wings periodically to make some comment on meteorology; these always seem poorly integrated with the main text and the explanations are confusing.

The weather was indeed awful; there was a cold drought in New England and Quebec, with snow as almost the only precipitation; Northern Europe had the cold weather but torrential rains instead of a drought. In both cases crops were annihilated; bread often couldn’t be had but livestock was plentiful (at least initially) since farmers couldn’t feed it and sold it off. Klingaman I tries to relate the weather to personal stories; for example, Robert Peel’s development of a professional police force was perhaps inspired by food riots while he was in Ireland; Jane Austen’s final illness was perhaps exacerbated by the weather; and the germ for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein perhaps came from dismal weeks in Switzerland when the coterie took turns telling ghost stories because the weather was too foul to go out sightseeing. The key word is “perhaps”; certainly the suggestions are not implausible but also not falsifiable (to be far, Klingaman is very discrete about it, just describing the weather and letting the reader draw conclusions).

The meteorological stuff is disappointing. I know maps are my particular hobby-horse, but if you are trying to explain how a change in the jet stream might affect the North Atlantic Oscillation one map will serve better than pages of text. What’s more some of the general meteorology seems a little suspect (or perhaps poorly edited?). For example, Klingaman II describes sulfur dioxide injected in to the stratosphere by the eruption where it “…rapidly combined with readily available hydroxide gas – which, in liquid form, is commonly known as hydrogen peroxide – to form more than 100 million tons of sulfuric acid”. Saying the stratosphere as containing “hydroxide gas” and implying that this is somehow a vapor equivalent to hydrogen peroxide is arguably not incorrect but is a pretty weird way to describe it. Later in the book when Klingaman II gets a couple of pages again, he says ice ages are due to “changes in the Earth’s orbit”; I assume he’s talking about Milankovitch orbital forcing which is pretty certainly not the “cause” of ice ages and are not “changes in the Earth’s orbit”; the Earth is orbiting just the way it supposed to.

As mentioned, no maps – in fact, no illustrations at all. Pretty thoroughly referenced but by the page and paragraph method; there are no footnotes. The anecdotes are interesting enough and it’s nice to see someone relating historical events to climate; but it would have been nice to have more geology and clearer climatology.

Clever overview of China, Jerusalem and the Roman Empire during the first century CE, with the weight of the book focused on the Roman Empire. Entertaining and informative.

This has lots of factual information and attempts to cover the world wide effects of this eruption. I think they would have been better off saying from the outset they were concentrating on the effect in Europe and the US. The information on the rest of the world was cursory at best. The impact on world history could have been more nuanced and better presented.

5105. The Year Without Summer 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, by William K. Klingaman and Nicholas P. Klingaman (read 26 Dec 2013) This 2013 book tells of the volcanic eruption on Sumbawa in Indonesia on Apr 5, 1815. It was such a momentous catastrophe that it affected the weather all over the world in 1816, causing terrible suffering and starvation because the summer of 1816 was so adversely affected. It was disastrous in many places, including in Baden, and since my great-great-grandparents left Baden in 1817 and came to the U.S., I am wondering whether their leaving Baden was the result of the suffering caused there by the volcano. If so, it can be said the volcano caused me to come to be, since if any of my ancestors were different I would not be me but would be somebody else! Except for that interesting personal effect, I did not find the book too exciting or riveting, since it spends lots of pages simply telling what was said about the weather in 1816 in books and diaries and newspapers. After awhile, that tends to pall and one says yes, we see the weather in 1816 was awful but we don't need to be told that over and over. The book does tell about interesting people, James Madison, Jane Austen, Lord Byron, King Louis XVIII. et al., and what they said about the weather, and what they did and so on, which is of interest. But in general I did not find the book as interesting as the other two books by William K. Klingaman which I have read.½

Written by a father-son team of an historian and a meteorologist, this book had a good mix of history and science. Although the topic was interesting and the worldwide cultural effects of the eruption were fascinating, the book dragged on, especially through the middle section. In the end it was only pretty good, but the potential was there for so much more

Comparing this book to [b:The World Without Us|248787|The World Without Us|Alan Weisman|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1317065220s/248787.jpg|241063], a book I loved, set me up for such disappointment. The subject matter piqued my interest but I did not enjoy the reading experience.

It still sort of pains me to abandon a book like this. So many books, so little time.

3039 1941: Our Lives in a World on the Edge, by William K. Klingaman (read 29 Nov 1997)This book covers the year 1941--except for an unnecessary epilogue--and while it is based on rather ordinary secondary sources, really caught me up. 1941 was a year I am very familiar with--I was in 7th and 8th grade and was intensely aware of the momentous events of the year. Most of the book discusses war, though it also covers other events: Virginia Woolf's suicide, Whirlaway's triple crown, Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Ted Williams' .400 plus batting average, Mickey Owen's passed ball. Little I did not know, but the events re Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete took on new clarity for me. I sheerly enjoyed this book, even though it is journalistic history, not academic history.½

3739. 1929: The Year of the Great Crash, by William K. Klingaman (read 1 May 2003) It was 29 Nov 1997 when I so enjoyed this author's evocative and stunning book 1941 Our Lives in a World on the Edge. So when I saw this book (published in 1989) I wanted to read it. It is an equally good read, though it is popular rather than academic history. He begins with Election Day 1928 and progresses into 1930, with a great epilogue, telling a bit about what happened to the people prominent during 1929. While the stock market is a central thesis much more of what happened during the period is covered, e.g., the Feb 14, 1929, massacre, events in England and Germany, etc. I have read other books on the 1929 crash, such as The Day America Crashed by Tom Schachtman (read 3 July 1979) and The Day the Bubble Burst: A Social History of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts (read 25 Mar 2000--coincidentally the height of the Clinton Years bull market!) but found this book much better than either of those. The bibliography lists no less than 26 books I've read, and also many that I would like to read½

While I think Klingaman's approach is too broad (I probably would have cut China out completely and just concentrated on Europe and the Middle East), this book is very well written and entertaining. There is a personal element in the work that is not found in many history books. You really get a sense of the people found within. I am pleased at his respectful approach to Christianity, even if it remains a secular approach.

He jumps from area to area, as though telling a chronological history of the world rather than a place at a time. This allows us to see how events lined up across the continent and how they affected each other. We can see, for instance, how Roman politics affected the trial and crucifixion of Christ.

A good read, and one I recommend to anyone interested in this time period.

Weather, 19th century economics, Napoleon., Yankee farmers in Indiana, sunspots and Mary Selley's Frankenstein.