Probing the past to better understand the present and prepare for an uncertain future. I think it’s fair to say that no field of history has grown more swiftly in quantity or sophistication in the 21st century than environmental history. The reason is, I suspect, self-evident: it’s in part a scholarly response to global warming, biodiversity loss, volatile and extreme weather events, and climate change–related diseases.
Abstract. When the Black Death struck Western Europe in late 1347, city dwellers across the region were already practising public health, in part by building, m