Originally published on April 22, 2024 (Episode 357)
Introduction
Since antiquity, thinkers have argued that climate shapes human bodies, societies, and even destinies. From Hippocrates to Montesquieu to modern climate science, the idea of climate’s “empire” over humanity has never really gone away.
In his new book The Empire of Climate: A History of an Idea, David N. Livingstone traces this enduring thread across more than two millennia, exploring how it has shaped medicine, philosophy, politics, and science.
About the Guest
David N. Livingstone is Emeritus Professor of Geography and Intellectual History at Queen’s University Belfast. He is the author and joint editor of numerous works on the histories of geographical knowledge, the spatiality of scientific culture, and the historical geographies of science and religion.
For Further Investigation
Related Episodes
Clarence Glacken, Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thought from Ancient Times to the End of the Eighteenth Century (University of California Press, 1967)
Dane Kennedy, The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj (University of California Press, 1996)
Mike Hulme, “Reducing the Future to Climate: A Story of Climate Determinism and Reductionism.” Osiris 26 (2011): 245–266
Diana K. Davis, The Arid Lands: History, Power, Knowledge (MIT Press, 2016)
Dagomar Degroot, The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560–1720 (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
💬 Listen & Discuss
Do you think climate really rules empires—or is that just an old intellectual habit dressed in new urgency? Share your thoughts in the comments, and tag a friend who’s always arguing about the weather at dinner.
