Climate, Science, and Colonization: Histories from Australia and New Zealand (Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology)

This series presents original, high-quality, and accessible works at the cutting edge of scholarship within the history of science and technology. Books in the series aim to disseminate new knowledge and new perspectives about the history of science and technology, enhance and extend education, foster public understanding, and enrich cultural life. Collectively, these books will break down conventional lines of demarcation by incorporating historical perspectives into issues of current and ongoing concern, offering international and global perspectives on a variety of issues, and bridging the gap between historians and practicing scientists. In this way they advance scholarly conversation within and across traditional disciplines but also to help define new areas of intellectual endeavor. Front Matter....Pages i-xxii Introduction....Pages 1-16 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 Australasia: An Overview of Modern Climate and Paleoclimate during the Last Glacial Maximum....Pages 19-42 “The usual weather in New South Wales is uncommonly bright and clear ... equal to the finest summer day in England”: Flood and Drought in New South Wales, 1788–1815....Pages 43-59 Extreme Weather and ENSO: Their Social and Cultural Ramifications in New Zealand and Australia in the 1890s....Pages 61-80 Pioneer Settlers Recognizing and Responding to the Climatic Challenges of Southern New Zealand....Pages 81-96 Front Matter....Pages 97-97 “For the sake of a little grass”: A Comparative History of Settler Science and Environmental Limits in South Australia and the Great Plains....Pages 99-117 Debating the Climatological Role of Forests in Australia, 1827–1949: A Survey of the Popular Press....Pages 119-136 Science, Religion, and Drought: Rainmaking Experiments and Prayers in North Otago, 1889–1911....Pages 137-155 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 Farming on the Fringe: Agriculture and Climate Variability in the Western Australian Wheat Belt, 1890s to 1980s....Pages 159-176 “Soothsaying” or “Science?”: H. C. Russell, Meteorology, and Environmental Knowledge of Rivers in Colonial Australia....Pages 177-193 Imported Understandings: Calendars, Weather, and Climate in Tropical Australia, 1870s–1940s....Pages 195-211 Destabilizing Narratives of the “Triumph of the White Man over the Tropics”: Scientific Knowledge and the Management of Race in Queensland, 1900–1940....Pages 213-231 Australasian Airspace: Meteorology, and the Practical Geopolitics of Australasian Airspace, 1935–1940....Pages 233-249 Epilogue: Future Research Directions....Pages 251-253 Back Matter....Pages 255-280 "Offering important new historical understandings of human responses to climate and climate change, this cutting-edge volume explores the dynamic relationship between settlement, climate, and colonization. The contributions gathered here consider a wide range of interrelated topics, among them the use of scientific evidence in historical research, the physical impact of climate on agriculture and land development, and changing understandings of climate, including the development of "folk" and government meteorologies. They reveal Australasia to be a remarkably varied and fertile area for analyzing cultural responses to climate as well as the wider social ramifications of historical climatic events"-- Provided by publisher Offering new historical understandings of human responses to climate and climate change, this cutting-edge volume explores the dynamic relationship between settlement, climate, and colonization, covering everything from the physical impact of climate on agriculture and land development to the development of "folk" and government meteorologies.