On Reading Fagan's The Long Summer
More! More! More books that I'm just getting around to writing about. Here's another one: Brian Fagan, The Long Summer : How Climate Changed Civilization (New York : Basic Books, 2004; xvii + 284 pages).
I liked it. So far I've liked both books by Fagan that I read, and I expect I'll read more. This one is about how climate may have altered the course of civilization. About 10,000 years ago the Earth saw a warming trend and we're still in that warmer-climate state (the "Long Summer" of his title). The warming changed the habitat and habits of animals and plants and local climates shifted markedly. How much was climate change the driving force behind the development of agriculture, the domestication of plants and animals?
I liked the book. Here's my book note. I'm not sure I liked it quite so well as his The Little Ice Age (my book note), but I liked it and they complemented each other well, so I found it valuable to read both of them.
I saved this following excerpt because I like the description of the "restless, idle young men" problem and its solution. Perhaps this is the traditional solution of what to do with a surplus of "restless, idle young men"?
According to the historian Titus Livius, the Bituriges of the Marne / Moselle area were the most powerful Gallic tribe of the day [fifth century BC]. They were such successful farmers that their population exploded and restless, idle young men threatened law and order. Their chief, Ambigatus, "wishing to relieve his kingdom of the burdensome throng," chose two of his kinsmen and charged each of them to lead a migration, the one eastward, the other southward toward Italy. Thousands of young men made their way across Europe seeking farmland and plunder. While the elderly, slaves, women, and children stayed home to till the land and tend herds, the warriors wandered freely, kept in order by feasts, commemorating rank and deeds in battle. Their ferocity was legendary. The Greek geographer Strabo remarked that "the whole race is madly fond of war, high-spirited, and quick to battle." [p. 203]
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on Friday, 22 May 2009 at 23.37
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Restless, unemployed or underemployed and deeply resentful young men found purpose, status and outlets for their hostility in Hitler's brown shirts organization in 1930's Germany. We know all too well how that turned out.
I have long maintained that having large numbers of healthy, educated young men stagnating for lack of jobs and purpose is extremely dangerous, for them and for society. It's no less dangerous than welding a teakettle half full of water shut and putting it on a lit burner.