The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization

An exploration of the centuries-long pattern of human adaptation to the challenges of an ever-changing climate―and how climate change gave rise to civilization

“A compelling and fascinating book.”―Nature 

Humanity evolved in an Ice Age in which glaciers covered much of the world. But starting around 15,000 years ago, temperatures began to climb. Civilization and all of recorded history occurred in this warm period, known as the Holocene―the long summer of the human species. People in the Near East abandoned hunting and gathering and began cultivating cereal crops, the catastrophic flood that created the Black Sea drove settlers deep into Europe, and the warming and drying of the Sahara forced its cattle-herding peoples to take up a less hazardous life along the banks of the Nile. This warming period ushered in the migrations and advancements that define human history.

In The Long Summer, renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan illuminates the centuries-long pattern of human adaption to the challenges of an ever-changing climate, with profound resonance for our own time.

Brian Fagan (1936-2025) was one of the world's leading archaeological writers. He was a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the author of numerous books, including The Little Ice Age and the New York Times bestseller The Great Warming.