{"product_id":"the-third-horseman-isbn-9780143127147","title":"The Third Horseman","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe incredible true story of how a cycle of rain, cold, disease, and warfare created the worst famine in European history—years before the Black Death, from the author of \u003ci\u003eJustinian's Flea \u003c\/i\u003eand the forthcoming \u003ci\u003eMiracle Cure\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn May 1315, it started to rain. For the seven disastrous years that followed, Europeans would be visited by a series of curses unseen since the third book of Exodus: floods, ice, failures of crops and cattle, and epidemics not just of disease, but of pike, sword, and spear. All told, six million lives—one-eighth of Europe’s total population—would be lost.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith a category-defying knowledge of science and history, William Rosen tells the stunning story of the oft-overlooked Great Famine with wit and drama and demonstrates what it all means for today’s discussions of climate change.“A kink in Europe’s climate during the fourteenth century indirectly triggered a seven-year cataclysm that left six million dead, William Rosen reveals in \u003cb\u003ethis rich interweaving of agronomy, meteorology, economics and history\u003c\/b\u003e.... Rosen deftly delineates the backstory and the perfect storm of heavy rains, hard winters, livestock epidemics, and war leading to the catastrophe.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eNature\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rosen... delights in the minutiae of history, down to the most fascinating footnotes... Engrossing.... A work that glows from the author’s relish for his subject.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eKirkus \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rosen (\u003ci\u003eThe Most Powerful Idea in the World\u003c\/i\u003e) argues persuasively that natural disasters are most catastrophic when humankind’s actions give them a push. The depredations committed in battle by Englishmen and Scots were augmented by years of bad weather: the result was that people died in droves. The interactions Rosen describes have been studied but are seldom incorporated into popular history, and the author never overreaches in his conclusions, providing a well-grounded chronicle.... This book will appeal foremost to history lovers, but it should also interest anyone who enjoys a well-documented story.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“\u003c\/i\u003eWilliam Rosen is a good enough writer to hold interest and maintain the fraught relations between nature and politics as a running theme. He ends \u003ci\u003eThe Third Horseman \u003c\/i\u003ewith a stark observation: in some ways, global ecology is more precarious nowadays than it was in the 1300s.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMilwaukee Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rosen is a terrific storyteller and engaging stylist; his vigorous recaps of famous battles and sketches of various colorful characters will entertain readers not unduly preoccupied by thematic rigor.... Rosen’s principal goal, however, is not to horrify us, but to make us think.... While vividly re-creating a bygone civilization, he invites us to look beyond our significant but ultimately superficial differences and recognize that we too live in fragile equilibrium with the natural world whose resources we recklessly exploit, and that like our medieval forebears we may well be vulnerable to ‘a sudden shift in the weather.’”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Rosen is a natural and playful storyteller.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[Rosen] writes what might be called champagne prose: it slips down quick and easy but carries a punch.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Telegraph \u003c\/i\u003e(UK)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eWilliam Rosen\u003c\/b\u003e, author of \u003ci\u003eMiracle Cure\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Third Horseman\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eJustinian’s Flea\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Most Powerful Idea in the World\u003c\/i\u003e, was an editor and a publisher at Macmillan, Simon \u0026amp; Schuster, and the Free Press for nearly twenty-five years.","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303550046437,"sku":"NP9780143127147","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143127147.jpg?v=1767741833","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-third-horseman-isbn-9780143127147","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}