An amazing, enlightening, and endlessly entertaining look at how weather has shaped our world. Throughout history, great leaders have fallen, the outcomes of mighty battles have been determined, and the tides of earth-shattering events have been turned by a powerful, inscrutable force of nature: the weather. In Blame It on the Rain , author Laura Lee explores the amazing and sometimes bizarre ways in which weather has influenced our history and helped to bring about sweeping cultural change. She also delights us with a plethora of fascinating weather-related facts (Did you know that more Britons die of sunburn every year than Australians?), while offering readers a hilarious overview of humankind's many absurd attempts to control the elements. If a weather-produced blight hadn't severely damaged French vineyards, there might never have been a California wine industry. . . . What weather phenomenon was responsible for the sound of the Stradivarius? If there had been a late autumn in Russia, Hitler could have won World War II. . . . Did weather play a part in Truman's victory over Dewey? Eye-opening, edifying, and totally unexpected, Blame It on the Rain is a fascinating appreciation of the destiny-altering vagaries of mother nature&#8212and it's even more fun than watching the Weather Channel!

命運掌握在自己手裏，不過……還要天氣同意纔行。俄羅斯憑什麽打敗拿破侖和希特勒？靠天氣。史特拉第瓦裏的小提琴憑什麽傲視群倫？靠天氣。改變世界的法國大革命如何引爆？靠天氣。要是孔明沒有藉到東風，還會有接下來的三國故事嗎？要是1959年美國總統大選當天陽光普照，甘乃迪會當選為美國總統嗎？要是法國的葡萄園不曾被天氣破壞，還會有現今加州的葡萄酒業嗎？全球暖化、氣候劇變正威脅地球環境，天候成瞭眾所矚目的焦點，但天氣現象絕對不是最近纔開始對人類造成深遠影響。本書細述人類曆史被天氣和氣候改變的故事，精采萬分，融閤瞭知識、娛樂、驚奇等元素於一身。想知道天氣如何插手人類事務，人類又用過哪些手段企圖插手天氣現象呢？55則閑話天氣時最好用的話題，都在本書裏麵。