This book provides historical perspectives on the climate apprehensions of scientists and the general public from the Englightenment to the late twentieth century. Issues discussed include what people have understood, experienced, and feared about the climate and its changes in the past; how privileged and authoritative positions on climate have been established; the paths by which we have arrived at our current state of knowledge and apprehension; and what a study of the past has to offer to the interdisciplinary investigation of environmental problems.