Blame It on the Rain: How the Weather Has Changed History

An Amazing, Enlightening, And Endlessly Entertaining Look At How Weather Has Shaped Our World. Throughout History, Great Leaders Have Fallen, The Outcomes Of Mighty Battles Have Been Determined, And The Tides Of Earth-shattering Events Have Been Turned By A Powerful, Inscrutable Force Of Nature: The Weather. In Blame It On The Rain, Author Laura Lee Explores The Amazing And Sometimes Bizarre Ways In Which Weather Has Influenced Our History And Helped To Bring About Sweeping Cultural Change. She Also Delights Us With A Plethora Of Fascinating Weather-related Facts (did You Know That More Britons Die Of Sunburn Every Year Than Australians?), While Offering Readers A Hilarious Overview Of Humankind's Many Absurd Attempts To Control The Elements.--publisher's Website. Presents A Collection Of Essays That Explores The Various Ways In Which Weather Conditions Contributed To Major Events In History. Introduction -- Humans On The Brink Of Extinction -- Noah's Flood -- The Population Of Australia -- Sea Breezes Save Western Culture -- Tempestas Cooritur: The Battle Of Teutoburg Forest -- Why The Sun Never Sets On The British Isles -- The First Kamikaze -- Loss Of The True Cross -- Greenland's Vikings: Victims Of Climate Change And Cultural Stubbornness -- The Treaty That Fell From The Sky -- My Pope''s Better Than Your Pope: Lightning And The Great Schism -- The Mud That Made England -- The Fog Of War -- Lost Siberians -- Which Witch Did This -- A Protestant Wind Destroys The Spanish Armada -- Thanks To The Wind The Lost Colony Remains America's Greatest Mystery -- Gee, It's Cold In Russia, Part I: Charles Xii Invades Russia -- The Secret Of The Stradivarius -- Another Protestant Wind Blows A New Kind To England's Throne -- Ben Franklin And That Kite -- Through Many Dangers, Toils, And Snares -- Washington And Weather -- Hail To The French Revolution --^ Rain Ruines Robespierre -- The United Irishmen, The French, And The Rain -- A Slave Revolt Washed Away -- Gee, It's Cold In Russia, Part Ii: Napoleon Invades Russia -- Does That Star -- Spangled Banner Yet Wave? -- Tecumseh Is Lost In The Fog -- The Water Of Waterloo -- Gee, It's Cold In Russia, Part Iii: A Senseless War Extended By The Weather -- The Guy With The Sideburns Gets Stuck In The Mud -- The Storm That Saved Civil War Prisoners -- What Is That Guy In The Scream Afraid Of? -- A Gust Of Wind And Aviation Obscurity -- El Nino And Dashed Polar Dreams -- Cold Shaving And Jacob Schick -- The Failure Of Forecasting And The Death Of Lord Kitchener -- Rain Clouds Put An End To The Age Of The Airship -- Gee, Its Cold In Finland: The Winter War -- Gee, It's Cold In Russia, Part Iv: Hitler Invades Russia -- D-day -- Blooming With Atoms: A New Cloud Formation, The Mushroom -- Sunshine Over Hiroshima -- Misreading The Monsoons -- Dewey Defeats Truman --^ Canadian Chill Saves A National Park From Nuclear Contamination -- Heat And The Powder Keg, -- Making Monsoons -- Lucy And Her Friends -- Operation Thwarted By Desert Storm --meteorology And Rocketry -- Blood Rain And World War Iii, -- Nature Does Not Carry A Passport. Laura Lee. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [297]-314).