Civilization, Climate, and Malthus: The Rough Course of Global History

John Brooke’s Climate Change and the Course of Global History is a significant contribution to deep history and an impressive elucidation of the intersection between environmental studies and historical sociology. Brooke’s primary argument is that climate change is a “joker,” a wild card incompatible with theories of deep history that are based on Malthusian theory. However, because of his limited presentation of Malthusianism and his ambiguous treatment of “endogenous” and “exogenous” causal factors, he misses an opportunity to integrate social-science models of long-range historical development with the powerful forces of environmental change.