The Burning Earth: A History
In this magisterial book, historian Sunil Amrith twins the stories of environment and Empire, of genocide and eco-cide, of an extraordinary expansion of human freedom and its planetary costs. Drawing on an extraordinarily rich diversity of primary sources, he reckons with the ruins of Portuguese silver mining in Peru, British gold mining in South Africa, and oil extraction in Central Asia. He explores the railroads and highways that brought humans to new terrains of battle against each other and against stubborn nature. Amrith's account of the ways in which the First and Second World Wars involved the massive mobilization not only of men, but of other natural resources from around the globe, provides an essential new way of understanding war as an irreversible reshaping of the planet. So too does this book reveal the reality of migration as consequence of environmental harm.
The imperial, globe-spanning pursuit of profit, joined with new forms of energy and new possibilities of freedom from hunger and discomfort, freedom to move and explore, has brought change to every inch of the Earth. Amrith relates in gorgeous prose, and on the largest canvas, a mind-altering epic--vibrant with stories, characters, and vivid images--in which humanity might find the collective wisdom to save itself.
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As beautiful as it is indispensable, as breathtaking as it is devastating. It answers questions most of us have been too daft even to ask. The Burning Earth will set you on fire.--Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States
A marvelously erudite and wide-ranging account of the steadily accelerating ecological transformation of the planet since the twelfth century. An indispensable contribution to both environmental and global history.--Amitav Ghosh, author of The Great Derangement
A devastating panorama of human folly, a poetic meditation on how the search for freedom from nature undermined the very conditions for life on Earth. Beautifully written, Sunil Amrith's global and long-term view is crucial to understanding the environmental predicaments we are in, and, perhaps, to restore a distraught world. A must-read for anyone concerned with the state of the planet.--Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton
Memorable and mesmerizing. Sunil Amrith has gifted us a page-turner of a book, written with passionate lucidity. Historically deep and geographically generous, The Burning Earth dramatizes human freedom's profound dependence on the health and integrity of our environments. Amrith's capacious insights and his worldly perspective make this a standout title for anyone interested in the long arc of environmental justice--Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor
Ranging from the Mongol expansion to contemporary climate change, Amrith has given us the most readable global environmental history yet. With an eye for the telling detail combined with a sense of the big picture, this book brings environmental perspectives together with such major world historical themes as empire, freedom and energy. A towering achievement and a joy to read.--J. R. McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World
[The Burning Earth] is an environmentally focused chronicle of the eras of colonization and industrialization that probes the dual natures of war and resource extraction, ecological degradation and human mass migration, and technological improvement and planetary devastation.-- "Publishers Weekly"
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