Health and disease history of the Caribbean, 1491-1850: two syndemics John R. McNeill is widely considered a pioneer in the study of environmental history. His books include The Mountains of the Mediterranean World: An Environmental History (1992), Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-century World (2000), Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1640-1914 (2010), and most recently (with Peter Engelke), The Great Acceleration: An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945 (2016). He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and President of the American Historical Association for 2019.