A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter in North America is a comprehensive analysis of how different European powers interacted with the various climates of North and South America. This book was very interesting because it heavily explored the idea of the Little Ice Age as being the main reason for a lot of the early struggles that European faced in the Americas. By using both physical and human sources from history, the author was able to craft a holistic view of how colonists and Europeans viewed and interacted with the climate of the Americas. The author goes into detail about the successes and failures of certain colonies located around the Americas. The book’s author is Sam White who is an expert in environmental history focusing on how historians can use both natural and human records to reconstruct past climates and look into how societies coped with them. His expertise and focus in this area of study make him very qualified and trusted to write this book.
This book has a few main arguments. First, it aims to show how early modern Europeans interacted with the climate of the Americas as well as back home in Europe. By looking into the human interactions, ideas, and experiences with the climates of this time we can start to understand the broader ideas of societies during this time. Additionally, this book aims to argue that climate and climate change had a profound impact on the experiences of colonizers, and changed the course of the first European colonies in the Americas. This book is organized thematically with the chronological aspects to it as well. Thematically it is broken down into various geographic regions as well. Some chapters focus on specifically the Spanish, French, and English expeditions. Additionally, the author tries to focus on geographic regions of the Americas as well, taking the readers through Florida, New Mexico, The Carolinas, Virginia, and Maine. This book does not have too much thematic organization in terms of the categorization of climate impacts on colonists. That would have added a different dimension to the book, maybe allowing readers to see trends of climate impacts across different European colonies.
Chapter 1 focuses on the pre knowledge Europeans may have had about climate and weather before setting out on expeditions. Additionally, the author even spends a few paragraphs explaining the high and low-pressure systems that impact the prevailing winds and temperatures around the earth. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the Spanish exploration of Florida talking about the failures and successes of Cabeza de Vaca and Velasco. These chapters also discuss the French interactions with Florida and the Roanoke colony in Virginia. These chapters detail how almost every colonist who interacted with the southern United States at that time was met with unfamiliar weather due to their lack of knowledge, and climate change. Chapter 4 jumps across the pond to talk about some of the impacts of climate change within Europe and how that might have spurred or hindered explorations to the Americas. Nobody was left untouched by the unusually cold temperatures. Chapters 5 and 6 explore Jamestown and how certain misfortunes of weather and geography led to a very rough couple of years in that colony. Chapter 7 explores the Sagadahoc colony during the very cold winter of 1608. Chapter 8 talks about how colonists in New Mexico greatly miscalculated what the weather and climate would be like, leading to some great misfortunes. Chapter 9 explores Quebec and Chapter 10 explores the rescue of Jamestown in Virginia.
In terms of weaknesses, the first thing that comes to mind is organization This book felt like it jumped all over the place geographically and thematically. Although it was very helpful to get a geographical analysis, sometimes the author would talk about several geographic areas in one paragraph which would cause some confusion. This book might have helped readers organize their thoughts better if chapters were organized by theme instead of geography. The writing style of the author was oftentimes not clear, and the main argument was not often mentioned. Including a mini-thesis at the beginning and the end of each chapter might have helped readers to draw better connections on how climate and climate change were impacting colonists. In terms of strengths, the Introduction and Conclusion were very comprehensive and clear which helped layout the main ideas and arguments for the readers. Additionally, the use of both physical and historical sources such as tree ring analysis added a scientific dimension to the paper.
In the conclusion, the author also added commentary on how it is important to continue to reconstruct and study the climate of the past. Not only does this help us study climate change, but it helps us to preserve climate history as our earth is so rapidly changing. This sense of environmental advocacy added a unique dimension to the book, as this is not often discussed in the history world.
