Curse of Akkad: Climate Upheavals that Rocked Human History Book

Climate has long affected civilization. Drought helped topple the first empire in Akkad, Mesopotamia 4000 years ago, and similar events rocked the Mayan and Roman empires. This book explores the effect of climate shifts, from the Ice Age to the present.

Children's Literature

This detailed nonfiction text contains a series of dramatic stories that demonstrate the importance of climate as a force that has shaped human history. Curious readers are drawn to the title of the book, which refers to the major event that rocked the eastern world 4,200 years ago when there was a massive drought followed by strong winds, similar to the ancient story of Noah's flood. This book is not for readers uninterested in the topic. It is rich with details about dramatic, life-changing events that have occurred throughout the world in far-reaching places. In these situations weather has been the main character, rather than the backdrop, and the other characters have included war, disease, technology and cultural differences. The main message of this text is that climate has always changed, but now it is changing at an alarmingly fast rate. There is a huge amount of information in this text. It is organized into chapters that discuss historical facts in chronological sequence, while zooming in on specific examples of climatic change. Each page has detailed, well-captioned illustrations that aid in the comprehension of the text. There is also a complete index, a table of contents, and a well-organized bibliography for additional information. For the science or history buff, this book will be a great source of information and it will serve as an excellent source of information in an upper elementary or middle school science classroom. Reviewer: Susan Borges