Taking us from the Big Bang to the present, the internationally bestselling author of The Silk Roads joins Tony Robinson in London to tell the story of how a changing climate has profoundly shaped human history.

Rich soil and bumper harvests have built empires.

Drought and famine have fanned the flames of war and rebellion.

Storms and floods, earthquakes and eruptions have buried civilisations.

The way that humans have interacted with the natural world and with the climate has shaped and will change our world – but this story has gone untold. Until now…

Peter Frankopan’s ground-breaking history, The Silk Roads, brought a dazzling new perspective to the story of humankind; its sequel, The New Silk Roads, mapped China’s emerging global empire.

Now he returns to How To Academy to share the story of how the climate has shaped the rise and fall of civilisations across time. How did the environment shape the development of religion and language? How did fluctuating harvests affect the shipment of enslaved peoples? How did agriculture contribute to the origins of the bureaucratic state?

Join the award-winning historian live on stage in London and discover the answer to all these questions and more.

Praise for the work of Peter Frankopan:

“He has the gift of perspective – the capacity to see the wood for the trees–which he combines with a Tolstoyan knack for weaving little details into the broader sweep of human affairs” – Jamie Susskind, Daily Telegraph

“Frankopan is a brilliant guide to terra incognita” – Niall Ferguson, Sunday Times

“Peter Frankopan has a sharp eye for startling facts” – Richard Drayton, Times Literary Supplement

“[His] skill is that he able to step back a few more paces from the world map and global events than most modern commentators, whilst encouraging us to use history as a way of looking forward than regressing into the past” – Joseph Wilkins, Total Politics

“He is a Herodotus of the twenty-first century” ― Irish Left Review