Geographer César Caviedes has been interested in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon as long as anybody. I read this book with great anticipation, expecting an authoritative account of El Niño in history based on decades of experience. With these expectations, this account was quite disappointing, though it still provides some insights into the impact of climate on both Latin American and global history over the last two millennia.
Caviedes purports to examine “numerous events in political, military, social, economic, and cultural history that were influenced by El Niño” around the world and provide the “first comprehensive” history of this recurrent climate phenomenon (p. xii). He falls far short of this ambitious goal. His real thesis is more akin to the claim that “El Niño effects have been felt not only in the present but also in the past” on a global scale (p. 215). This account is little more...
