In this dazzlingly original new book, archaeologist Brian Fagan shows that short-term climate shifts have been a major--and hitherto unrecogonized--force in history. El Nino-driven droughts have brought on the collapse of dynasties in Egypt; El Nino monsoon failures have caused historic famines in India; and El Nino floods have destroyed whole civilizations in Peru. Other short-term climate changes may have caused the mysterious abandonment of the...