Although some historians object to ‘presentism’ – studies of the past that are explicitly driven by present-day concerns – climate history as a field would probably not exist otherwise. Expensive technology is required to gather the raw data for research into past climates. Interdisciplinary collaboration is needed to develop robust interpretations of that data. The findings can have major political, economic and societal implications. It is a high-stakes research environment. Historians have been slow to join the conversation about the experience and impact of climate over time. While this rapidly growing body of research presents some striking conceptual and methodological challenges for the historical discipline, it also opens up a host of exciting possibilities...