Weather or Not

Abstract This article introduces the field of climate history and highlights its connections to agricultural history and other historical subdisciplines. It is designed for historians curious about past climates and climate change and how this information might inform their work. It defines climate history and historical climatology, surveys the state of climate historiography, and provides an overview of the field's research methods and challenges, emphasizing the varied, interdisciplinary nature of its sources. This methodological review exposes the value and limitations of natural archives such as tree rings (dendroclimatology), and it presents human records as a complementary and underutilized source of paleoclimatological data that historians are well positioned to develop. It demonstrates that climate history offers a useful and accessible lens for interpreting the past and contextualizing contemporary social and environmental issues. Finally, it encourages historians to actively consider the climate, and it provides suggestions and resources for getting started.