Overview

Examining a series of El Niño-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.

Full Product Details

9781859843826

Table of Contents

Reviews

Wide ranging and compelling ... a remarkable achievement. * Times Literary Supplement * Devastating. * The San Francisco Chronicle * A masterly account of climatic, economic and colonial history. * New Scientist * A hero of the Left, Davis is part polemicist, part historian, and all Marxist. -- Dale Peck * Village Voice * 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 * Davis's range is stunning ... He combines political economy, meteorology, and ecology with vivid narratives to create a book that is both a gripping read and a major conceptual achievement. Lots of us talk about writing 'world history' and 'inter-disciplinary history': here is the genuine article. -- Kenneth Pomeranz, author of <em>The Great Divergence</em> The global climate meets a globalizing political economy, the fundamentals of one clashing with the fundamentalisms of the other. Mike Davis tells the story with zest, anger, and insight. -- Stephen J. Pyne, author of <em>World Fire</em>

Davis has given us a book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest. -- Amartya Sen, New York Times A masterly account of climactic, economic and colonial history. - New Scientist Generations of historians largely ignored the implications [of the great famines of the nineteenth century] and until recently dismissed them as 'climactic accidents'... Late Victorian Holocausts proves them wrong. - LA Times Best Books of 2001 David, a brilliant, maverick scholar, sets the triumph of late-nineteenth-century Western imperialism in the context of the catastrophic El Nino weather patterns at that time ... This is groundbreaking, mind-stretching stuff. - The Independent Wide Ranging and compelling ... a remarkable achievement. - Times Literary Supplement

Author Information

Mike Davis is the author of many books including Planet of Slums, City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear, Late Victorian Holocausts, and Magical Urbanism. He was recently awarded a MacArthur Fellowship.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available