Glaciers, sediments, and pollen can be used to reconstruct the climate of the past. Beyond "nature's archive," other sources, ...

Records from 500 years ago document floods, famine and death in 16th century Transylvania due to wild weather swings during the Little Ice Age.

If you want to live in the Gilded Age, sign up for a play or reenactment or something. Leave government out of it.