The Burning Earth - An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years

Ever since innovations in agriculture vastly expanded production of the staples of food energy, our remarkable achievements in reshaping nature have brought about an overwhelming expansion in the life chances of billions of people. Yet every technological innovation has also empowered humans to exploit each other and the planet with devastating brutality, twinning the stories of environment and of Empire, genocide and eco-cide, as with Spanish silver mining in Peru and British gold mining in South Africa.

After the age of empire, new nations raced to make up lost ground, expanding human freedom at devastating ecological cost. Amrith''s environmental lens provides an essential new way of understanding war: as a massive reshaping of the earth through the global mobilization of natural resources, those resources including humans themselves. He also makes clear that migration is often a consequence of environmental harm.

Reinterpreting a history previously seen from a Euro-and-anthropocentric viewpoint, Amrith relates in brilliant prose, and on the largest canvas, a magisterial, mind-altering epic - vibrant with stories, characters, vivid images and rich archival resources.<>

About the author

Sunil Amrith is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History and professor in the School of the Environment at Yale University. He is the author of four books, and a recipient of multiple awards including a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship and the 2024 Fukuoka Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of Asian studies. He grew up in Singapore and lives in Connecticut.

Report

This bleak, stunningly written book shows that the other side of the coin called progress is destruction. Amrith writes like the finest novelist, and his grasp of a mind-boggling expanse of material is deeply impressive Neel Mukherjee New Statesman

Product details

• Authors: Sunil Amrith, Amrith Sunil
• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 05.09.2024
• EAN: 9780241461983
• ISBN: 978-0-241-46198-3
• No. of pages: 432
• Dimensions: 160 mm x 239 mm x 38 mm
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book; World, NATURE / Natural Resources, Climate Change, NATURE / Ecology, HISTORY / Modern / General, HISTORY / World, SCIENCE / Natural History, c 1500 onwards to present day, Pollution & threats to the environment, Environmental Management, General and world history, Ecological science, the Biosphere, Impact of science and technology on society, The Earth: natural history: general interest, Industrialisation & Industrial History