In 2004 and 2005, the Gulf region experienced unprecedented hurricane frequencies, casualties, and material losses. Some hurricane researchers suggest that this reflects a normal period of increasing storm frequency, while others feel that these trends portend heightened activity due to global warming. In this light, Mulcahy’s focus on the period beginning in 1624, as Britain established permanent colonial settlements and exposed its subjects to this new environmental phenomenon, represents an interesting juxtaposition.
Seeking to understand processes of “encounter and accommodation” (p. 4) when populations come in contact with new environmental phenomena is not entirely new territory for historians. However, given their devastating impacts, seasonality, and frequency throughout the greater Caribbean, hurricanes provide a unique opportunity to better understand the “dynamic interaction between the environmental conditions colonists encountered and the cultural ideals and institutions they brought with them” (p. 4). Reading how English colonists addressed these issues over three hundred years...
