Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work

British climatologist and geographer, Gordon Manley (1902–1980), is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on climate variability in the UK, for establishing the Central England Temperature series and, for his pivotal role in demonstrating the powerful relationship between climate, weather, and...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Endfield, Georgina H., Veale, Lucy, Hall, Alexander
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2015
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28326/
_version_ 1848793554324815872
author Endfield, Georgina H.
Veale, Lucy
Hall, Alexander
author_facet Endfield, Georgina H.
Veale, Lucy
Hall, Alexander
author_sort Endfield, Georgina H.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description British climatologist and geographer, Gordon Manley (1902–1980), is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on climate variability in the UK, for establishing the Central England Temperature series and, for his pivotal role in demonstrating the powerful relationship between climate, weather, and culture in post-World War II Britain. Yet Manley made many contributions, both professional and popular, to climate change debates in the twentieth century, where climate change is broadly understood to be changes over a range of temporal and spatial scales rather than anthropogenic warming per se. This review first establishes how Manley's work, including that on snow and ice, was influenced by key figures in debates over climatic amelioration around the North Atlantic between 1920s and 1950s. His research exploring historical climate variability in the UK using documentary sources is then discussed. His perspectives on the relationship between climate changes and cultural history are reviewed, paying particular attention to his interpretation of this relationship as it played out in the UK. Throughout, the review aims to show Manley to be a fieldworker and an empiricist and reveals how he remained committed to rigorous scientific investigation despite changing trends within his academic discipline.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:02:09Z
format Article
id nottingham-28326
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:02:09Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Wiley
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-283262020-05-04T17:01:08Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28326/ Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work Endfield, Georgina H. Veale, Lucy Hall, Alexander British climatologist and geographer, Gordon Manley (1902–1980), is perhaps best known for his pioneering work on climate variability in the UK, for establishing the Central England Temperature series and, for his pivotal role in demonstrating the powerful relationship between climate, weather, and culture in post-World War II Britain. Yet Manley made many contributions, both professional and popular, to climate change debates in the twentieth century, where climate change is broadly understood to be changes over a range of temporal and spatial scales rather than anthropogenic warming per se. This review first establishes how Manley's work, including that on snow and ice, was influenced by key figures in debates over climatic amelioration around the North Atlantic between 1920s and 1950s. His research exploring historical climate variability in the UK using documentary sources is then discussed. His perspectives on the relationship between climate changes and cultural history are reviewed, paying particular attention to his interpretation of this relationship as it played out in the UK. Throughout, the review aims to show Manley to be a fieldworker and an empiricist and reveals how he remained committed to rigorous scientific investigation despite changing trends within his academic discipline. Wiley 2015-01-12 Article NonPeerReviewed Endfield, Georgina H., Veale, Lucy and Hall, Alexander (2015) Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change . ISSN 1757-7780 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/wcc.334/abstract doi:10.1002/wcc.334 doi:10.1002/wcc.334
spellingShingle Endfield, Georgina H.
Veale, Lucy
Hall, Alexander
Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
title Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
title_full Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
title_fullStr Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
title_full_unstemmed Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
title_short Gordon Valentine Manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
title_sort gordon valentine manley and his contribution to the study of climate change: a review of his life and work
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28326/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28326/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/28326/