Late Victorian Holocausts - El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World

Examining a series of El Nino-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China; and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites. Davis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants' lives.

About the author

Mike Davis (1946-2022) was a writer, political activist, urban theorist, and historian. He is best known for his investigations of power and class in works such as City of Quartz, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Planet of Slums. His last two non-fiction books are Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties, co-authored by Jon Wiener, and The Monster Enters: COVID-19, Avian Flu, and the Plagues of Capitalism. He was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award.

Report

Davis has given us a book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest...this highly informative book foes well beyond its immediate focus. Amartya Sen The New York Times

Product details

• Authors: Mike Davis, Davis Mike
• Publisher: Verso
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.10.2016
• EAN: 9781784786625
• ISBN: 978-1-78478-662-5
• No. of pages: 469
• Dimensions: 130 mm x 199 mm x 30 mm
• Series: The Essential Mike Davis
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; China, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Freedom, Brazil, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Disasters & Disaster Relief, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Meteorology & Climatology, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Caribbean & Latin American, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Asian, India, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Social and cultural history, Meteorology & climatology, Meteorology and climatology, Political control and freedoms, Political Control & Freedoms, Famine, Social impact of disasters / accidents (natural or man-made)