Glaciologists who take an interest in the records of the past behaviour of European glaciers, and especially the major glaciers of the Alps, can be strongly recommended to this lively, compact and scholarly work. The author, from a chair of economic history at Montpellier, has become known from his papers in which he has explored anew the records of the vintage in relation to other data in France. But he also takes an active interest in the glaciers. He has not only brought a penetrating mind to bear on the interpretation of well-known documents, for example with regard to the extent of the Rhône glacier in 1540; he knows his sciences, is active in the mountains and does his own field work. In this finely documented book, apart from much critical comment on recent work on the climate of Europe and North America, he provides a splendid series of reproductions of early illustrations of Alpine glaciers, in addition to comments on their behaviour. Seventy pages of tables and diagrams with twenty pages of bibliography make for a most compact, informed and scholarly production, which is up to date, and does not fail to take account of Scandinavian, Icelandic and American climatic events affecting the glaciers in the past millennium and to summarize current ideas on climatic fluctuation; he is critical of the more limited use of the term Little Ice Age.
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