James Belich

1 month ago | despertaferro-ediciones.com | Javier Gomez |Javier Gómez |James Belich

Durante la Edad Media, dos especies formidables se extendieron por Eurasia occidental: homo sapiens (los humanos) y rattus rattus (las ratas negras); aunque se despreciaban mutuamente, de hecho convivían en las mismas casas. En 1345, la peste negra alcanzó a las dos.

Oct 30, 2024 | lrb.co.uk | James Belich |Tom Shippey

The notion​ that human history is determined at bottom by natural forces and non-human factors seems to be an idea whose time has come. In Prisoners of Geography (2015), Tim Marshall argued that the fate of nations depends on their rivers and mountains, frontiers and coastlines. In The Earth Transformed (2023), Peter Frankopan added climate to the list: drought in Central Asia caused the fall of empires in Europe, and the Little Ice Age did the same for the Ming dynasty in China.

Dec 20, 2023 | henrycooke.news | James Belich |Henry Cooke

Mōrena! The year-ender season continues to creep backwards. Spotify Wrapped dropped in November this year and Pitchfork published its first ‘best of 2023’ list on November 20, when we weren’t even 90% of the way into the dang thing yet. At some point these organisations will be dragged to The Hague for these crimes, but for now we all just have to accept that the season now no longer consists of December and a bit of January, but December and a bit of November.

Jan 22, 2023 | newsbreak.com | James Belich

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is the second Cabinet member heading to Africa as part of President Joe Biden’s big push to engage with the world’s second-largest continent. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. said Sunday she will travel to Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya starting Jan.

Jan 22, 2023 | fortune.com | James Belich

After the Black Death, regions scattered across Europe, in which grain farming was marginal, reduced, or even abandoned their arable acres, and relied on imported grain. Such regions tended to be either coastal (including islands) with poor soils or prone to flooding, or mountainous.