Finalist for the Lincoln Prize! Traditional histories of the Civil War describe the conflict as a war between North and South. Kenneth W. Noe suggests it should instead be understood as a war between the North, the South, and the weather. In The Howling Storm, Noe retells the history of the conflagration with a focus on the ways in which weather and climate shaped the outcomes of battles and campaigns. He further contends that events such as floods and droughts affecting the Confederate home front constricted soldiers’ food supply, lowered morale, and undercut the government’s efforts to boost nationalist sentiment. By contrast, the superior equipment and open supply lines enjoyed by Union soldiers enabled them to cope successfully with the South’s extreme conditions and, ultimately, secure victory in 1865. Climate conditions during the war proved unusual, as irregular phenomena such as El Niño, La Niña, and similar oscillations in the Atlantic Ocean disrupted weather patterns across southern states. Taking into account these meteorological events, Noe rethinks conventional explanations of battlefield victories and losses, compelling historians to reconsider long-held conclusions about the war. Unlike past studies that fault inflation, taxation, and logistical problems for the Confederate defeat, his work considers how soldiers and civilians dealt with floods and droughts that beset areas of the South in 1862, 1863, and 1864. In doing so, he addresses the foundational causes that forced Richmond to make difficult and sometimes disastrous decisions when prioritizing the feeding of the home front or the front lines. The Howling Storm stands as the first comprehensive examination of weather and climate during the Civil War. Its approach, coverage, and conclusions are certain to reshape the field of Civil War studies.

Halley’s Comet helped to announce the fall of the Shang Dynasty in China, a solar eclipse frightened the Macedonian army enough at Pydna in 168 BC to ensure victory for the Romans, a massive rain storm turned the field of Agincourt to mud in 1415 and gave Henry V his legendary victory, fog secured the throne of England for Edward IV at Barnet in 1471, wind and disease conspired to wreck the Spanish Armada, snow served to prevent the American capture of Quebec in 1775 and confined the Revolution to the Thirteen Colonies, and an earthquake helped to spark the Peloponnesian War. But this is only a small sampling of the many instances where nature has tipped the balance in combat. Over the past 4000 years, weather and nature have both hindered and helped various campaigns and battles, occasionally even altering the course of history in the process. Today elements of nature still affect the planning and waging of war, even as we have tried to mitigate its impact. The growing concern over climate change has only heightened the need to study and understand this subject. Tide of War is the first book to comprehensively tackle this topic and traces some of the most notable intersections between nature and war since ancient times.

Innovative, long-term strategies for reducing vulnerability to large-scale natural disasters and for providing financial support for disaster victims. The United States and other nations are facing large-scale risks at an accelerating rhythm. In 2005, three major hurricanes—Katrina, Rita, and Wilma—made landfall along the U.S. Gulf Coast within a six-week period. The damage caused by these storms led to insurance reimbursements and federal disaster relief of more than $180 billion—a record sum. Today we are more vulnerable to catastrophic losses because of the increasing concentration of population and activities in high-risk coastal regions of the country. The question is not whether but when, and how frequently, future catastrophes will strike and the extent of damages they will cause. Who should pay the costs associated with catastrophic losses suffered by homeowners in hazard-prone areas? In At War with the Weather, Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan with their colleagues deliver a groundbreaking analysis of how we currently mitigate, insure against, and finance recovery from natural disasters in the United States. They offer innovative, long-term solutions for reducing losses and providing financial support for disaster victims that define a coherent strategy to assure sustainable recovery from future large-scale disasters. The amount of data collected and analyzed and innovations proposed make this the most comprehensive book written on these critical issues in the past thirty years.

Throughout history, from Kublai Khan's attempted invasions of Japan to Rommel's desert warfare, military operations have succeeded or failed on the ability of commanders to incorporate environmental conditions into their tactics. In Battling the Elements, geographer Harold A. Winters and former U.S. Army officers Gerald E. Galloway Jr., William J. Reynolds, and David W. Rhyne, examine the connections between major battles in world history and their geographic components, revealing what role factors such as weather, climate, terrain, soil, and vegetation have played in combat. Each chapter offers a detailed and engaging explanation of a specific environmental factor and then looks at several battles that highlight its effects on military operations. As this cogent analysis of geography and war makes clear, those who know more about the shape, nature, and variability of battleground conditions will always have a better understanding of the nature of combat and at least one significant advantage over a less knowledgeable enemy.

What if climate change is naturally occurring and cyclical? What if trillions of dollars will be spent to accomplish nothing? What if the real agenda is not about science, climate and weather, but simply uses this as a tool to disrupt and destroy the foundational concepts of one nation, under God, that have led to the greatest quality of life and liberty the world has ever known? At 65, Joe Bastardi is one of the most experienced meteorologists in the world today. His knowledge of past major events puts into perspective the extreme weather events seen today, that are nothing new, and in fact, not as severe as before. In this book, Bastardi goes in-depth to document naturally occurring climate and weather events to question those whose agenda it is to weaponize each weather event for the pursuit of a political and social aim. Of course, the climate is changing, and with the many natural influencers constantly in play, it always will. Thanks to an ever-fluctuating level of activity in the large natural drivers that have always controlled it, such as our Sun, the oceans, stochastic events and the very design of the system itself, climate change is natural. “A single attribution to man as the climate control knob in the face of this is questionable, if not a stretch. The reader should at least look at the ideas presented here,” said Bastardi. Joe understands the fear today, given what has been nothing short of public indoctrination. His new book offers an environmentally friendly and inexpensive solution to alleviate those fears, that will not destroy the economic lifeline of this nation as the Green New Deal surely will. It begins with removing the fear that has been pushed to create what is becoming irrational panic, especially with our young. So, is this book important on multiple levels? You decide.

Civil War Weather in Virginia fills a tremendous gap in our available knowledge in a fundamental area of Civil War studies, that of basic quotidian information on the weather in the theater of operations in the vicinity of Washington, DC, and Richmond, Virginia.