The Weather Factor: How Nature Has Changed History - Softcover

Military historian and award-winning war correspondent for the BBC and CBS, Erik Durschmied has covered crises in Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Belfast, Beirut, Chile, Cuba, and Afghanistan. He lives in Paris and Provence with his family.

Intended as a companion to the author's Hinge Factor [BKL Mr 15 00], which looked at the twists of fate that changed the outcomes of famous battles, this work looks at 14 cases of how nature has affected key moments of history. Durschmied takes the reader on a historical weather survey from the biblical flood to America's defeat in Vietnam. Along the way he shows how Japan was saved from a Mongol invasion fleet in 1281 by a typhoon, how fog doomed Tecumseh and the British during the War of 1812, and how Austria was saved from an invasion by Italy in 1916 by a series of heavy snows and avalanches. He concludes with a look at recent efforts to control weather and then projects into the future, looking at the military's desire to "own the weather." Although often as interesting as the author's previous book, this one suffers from a more personalized and informal tone that obfuscates rather than illustrates. Eric Robbins
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