Dagomar Degroot is an Assistant Professor of environmental history at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. He is the co-founder of the Climate History Network, an organization of more than 200 academics in the sciences and humanities.

• Introduction: crisis and opportunity in a changing climate; 1. The Little Ice Age; Part I. Commerce and Climate Change: Part I. Preface; 2. Reaching Asia in a stormy, chilly climate; 3. Sailing, floating, riding, and skating through a cooler Europe; Part II. Conflict and Climate Change: Part II. Preface; 4. Cooling, warming, and the wars of independence, 1564–1648; 5. Gales, winds, and Anglo-Dutch antagonism, 1652–88; Part III. Culture and Climate Change: Part III. Preface; 6. Tracing and painting the Little Ice Age; 7. Texts, technologies, and climate change; Conclusion: lessons from ice and gold; Appendices.

'Degroot offers surprising insights into links between weather variations during the chilliest phase of the Little Ice Age and the Dutch Golden Age by exploring how merchants, soldiers and investors exploited new opportunities resulting from to climate change. The book is well-researched and exciting to read.' Christian Pfister, Universität Bern, Switzerland