The Winds of Time

The pun in the title of this post is not meant to make light of storms and the destruction they sometimes havoc, but to draw attention to the historical study of Caribbean storms. I thought this might be of interest given our discussions about Ike and given that the Caribbean forms a major part of our unit on the Age of Exploration.

While I'm sure I'm leaving important titles out, one of the most interesting studies is Matthew Mulcahy's fascinating book Hurricanes and Society in the British Greater Caribbean, 1624-1783 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005). Read a review of the book here, and sections of it at Google Books here. One of the interesting tidbits of info I found in the book: did you know that hurricanes inspired Shakespeare's play The Tempest?

According to his website, Mulcahy is now working on a study of the 1692 earthquake in Jamaica. Much more was going on in the greater Atlantic world this year than witch hunts (perhaps not the one you are thinking of) and other assorted happenings. Should be an interesting book.

Other topics of discussion for storms and their impact are found here (Katrina and society), here (Katrina and religion), and here (Katrina and culture). Read more about Spike Lee's Katrina documentary here. In addition, here are some links relative to Ike you might find of interest: A Houston Chronicle blog, Houston Independent Media's Ike stories (you may have to scroll down the page), a Weather Underground blog, and a local CBS affiliate's Ike site. Here's a resident from Houston who posted some YouTube videos of Ike, another video of a neighborhood close to SBS and some AP aftermath footage.