There are many books about the Little Ice Age. But Jean Grove’s isn’t really just another, is it? It’s /the/ seminal text, built on decades of data collection, and evidence sifted from a far wider range of contexts than most number-crunching climate historians are now used to handling (e.g. Norwegian tax records).
The first edition of The Little Ice Age came out in 1988, just ahead of the game. Which is precisely why various scientists were so keen to engage with Grove’s work in the 1990s, either to build on it, temper it, dismantle it, or work round it. But it’s worth noting though that Grove herself accepted the theory of the greenhouse effect, and the mounting evidence confirming its impact on C20th climate.
Jean Grove’s scepticism was not built on prejudicial interpretation of data, nor did it extend to cynicism or flat denial of positions opposed to her own published views: which meant she was perfectly happy to accept new findings that forced her to adapt her own account, and perfectly happy to associate herself with courteous colleagues of /all/ persuasions — Soon, Briffa, Jones, Esper included (all of which is reflected in the second posthumous edition of her book, ‘Little Ice Ages: Ancient and Modern’, published in 2004). Many would do well to follow her example. Contrarians who cite her 1988 work blindly would do well to consider the views expressed in her final publications, including the revised edition.
For a recent account by Jean’s husban and long-term collaborator, A. T. Grove, which builds from the position adopted by him and Jean in the 1990s, back have a look at this: