ABSTRACT
Little Ice Age glacier variations provide useful information about past climates including changes in the atmospheric circulation. No full treatment is attempted here but a few themes are considered. First, the development by historians and climatologists of a methodology to elucidate the climate history of Europe is outlined. Then, an account is given of recent progress in unravelling the climatic history of Asia, especially China, where exceptionally long documentary records can be set alongside the results of analysing Tibetan ice cores. Little Ice Age climate in southern Africa is included mainly to illustrate the problems and possibilities of tracing the course of events in a part of the world for which there are fewer documents and very few ice cores. Finally, the glacial evidence of the Little Ice Age is evaluated in the context of climatic reconstructions by other means.
