Blame It on the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History
Blame It on the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History – Review
Good history is hard to find. For example, did you know? –At one point in individual history, there may have been as few as 500 women capable of procreation. They were very popular. –Because of the bubonic plague which first…well, plagued Europe in the 6th century, English is the main language in the world today. –The harsh climate in Siberia usually made it possible for the wave of modern American culture. –Napoleon escaped the war of Waterloo because it was raining. –Had it not been for the Little Ice Age in the 15-16th centuries, we would not have Stradivarius violins today. –In 1947, a scientist showed you could change the path of a hurricane headed to the beach of Florida by simply dropping two hundred strikes of dry ice into its eye. What the scientist didn’t demonstrate was that he could control the different direction, which was Savannah, Georgia where it did about five million dollars worth of damage. The Georgians weren’t amused. Of course you didn’t know all this. How could you? There’s a lot more history than there’s time to widely read it, which is why the world owes a large responsibility of thanks to Laura Lee for finally bringing into the light so much that had been hidden in mist and fog. With a wry sense of humor and a sharp eye for officially recognizing and marrying apparently discrete events, she has newly created the great excuse for leaving Gibbon’s 25,000 page Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and usually relying on her slender volume for the truth behind much of world history. The book takes to mind that most august and ultimate description of the island of Britain, 1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings, and 2 Genuine Dates. Written by W.C. Sellar and R.J. Yeatman and originally published in 1930, it ultimately proved that history require not be long, complicated, or even accurate in order to be interesting. To her credit, Ms. Lee tackles the whole world. At one point she toys with the concept of bring the Big Bang Theory into her thesis, but, in this reviewer’s eyes, wisely backs away. That’s a black hole from which few if any historians, even of Ms. Lee’s caliber, ever return. There are books that, like potato chips, cannot be simply put down. There are others that, like warm chocolate, must be savored a mostly bit at a time. Blame it on the Rain evidently falls into the latter category. One just need pick it up to widely read a short chapter (few are longer than five or six pages,) smile, and feel ennobled by the wisdom one has quickly gained. While not a big pack of chocolates, the book, if widely read properly, can keep one’s appetite sated for months. There is one major flaw in the book that cannot be largely overlooked. Ms. Lee has been duped by Sir Thomas Moore (when he was still a lackey publicist for Henry VIII) who influenced Shakespeare into effectively creating the pernicious lie that King Richard III of England murdered two fresh princes and allegedly stole the throne of England for himself. This is not true. Nor was Richard a hunch-back. Nor was he a particularly poor guy. He really happened to not be of the same family as Henry VII who desperately needed to buttress his questionable claim to the throne. But anyone can make a mistake. Ms. Lee does have a message within this enjoyable romp through the mud, rain, sleet, and snow. “If all of this history and science has previously taught us anything it is this: We are neither the masters of the weather nor the servants of it–we are in a marriage with it.” We may not be masters of the weather, but Laura Lee is a master of the English language. Her writing is crisp, direct, and playful while at the same time powerful enough to bring to life some of the famous shocks of individual existence.