Historical Disaster Experiences ─ Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters Across Asia and Europe

Historical disaster research is still a young field. This book discusses the experiences of natural disasters in different cultures, from Europe across the Near East to Asia. It focuses on the pre-industrial era and on the question of similarities, differences and transcultural dynamics in the cultural handling of natural disasters. Which long-lasting cultural patterns of perception, interpretation and handling of disasters can be determined? Have specific types of disasters changed the affected societies? What have people learned from disasters and what not? What adaptation and coping strategies existed? Which natural, societal and economic parameters play a part? The book not only reveals the historical depth of present practices, but also reveals possible comparisons that show globalization processes, entanglements and exchanges of ideas and practices in pre-modern times.

Gerrit Jasper Schenk (Dr. phil.) is professor of medieval history at Technische Universitat Darmstadt (Germany). He has taught at the universities of Heidelberg, Stuttgart and Essen and has held fellowships from the Gerda Henkel Foundation and the German Historical Institutes (Rome, Paris). He is an associated member of the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context” (University of Heidelberg). His main research interests are rituals, ceremonies, pilgrimage, environmental history, historical disaster research and urban history. Most recently he has coedited books on Historical Disasters in Context (2012), Krisengeschichte(n) (2013), Disaster as Image (2014) and Mensch. Natur. Katastrophe. Von Atlantis bis heute (2014).