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

Author:   Sunil Amrith
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN:  

9780241461983


Pages:   432
Publication Date:   26 September 2024
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
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The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years


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Overview

A brilliant, paradigm-shifting global survey of how human history has reshaped the planet, and vice versa over the last 500 years In this paradigm-shifting global history of how humanity has reshaped the planet, and the planet has shaped human history, Sunil Amrith twins the stories of environment and Empire, of genocide and eco-cide, of the expansion of human freedom and its 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 railways and highways that brought humans to new terrains of battle against each other and against 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. He also reveals 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, 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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Sunil Amrith
Publisher:   Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint:   Allen Lane
Dimensions:   Width: 16.00cm , Height: 3.80cm , Length: 23.90cm
Weight:   0.651kg
ISBN:  

9780241461983


ISBN 10:   0241461987
Pages:   432
Publication Date:   26 September 2024
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available   Availability explained
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

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Reviews

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 * The Burning Earth, which is nothing short of a history of the world, is 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. It will set you on fire * Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States * The Burning Earth is 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 * A wrenching, clear-eyed reckoning with humanity’s extractive relationship to the natural world that plants seeds of insight on how we can shift to an ethos of regeneration and repair. Every page challenges us to conceive the future we want for the planet...and ourselves * Kate Orff, author of Toward an Urban Ecology * 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 * Sunil Amrith’s Burning Earth, which is nothing short of a history of the world, is 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. It will set you on fire. --Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States -- Jill Lepore * Advance praise *


Sunil Amrith’s Burning Earth, which is nothing short of a history of the world, is 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. It will set you on fire. --Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States -- Jill Lepore * Advance praise *


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 * The Burning Earth, which is nothing short of a history of the world, is 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. It will set you on fire * Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States * The Burning Earth is 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 * A wrenching, clear-eyed reckoning with humanity’s extractive relationship to the natural world that plants seeds of insight on how we can shift to an ethos of regeneration and repair. Every page challenges us to conceive the future we want for the planet...and ourselves * Kate Orff, author of Toward an Urban Ecology * 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 * An epic exploration of human innovation and destruction [which] examines how the poor and powerless have fought back — time and again — against those seeking to profit from the planet’s natural resources -- Josie Glausiusz * Nature * Sunil Amrith’s The Burning Earth bristles with indignation... The history that Amrith covers is uncompromising, and he places the sins of environmental change on the insatiable greed of Europeans... [Amrith] is a scholar who writes with conviction -- Peter Frankopan * The Spectator * [A] magisterial historical review [....] Amrith writes from an environmental history perspective, and with an impassioned sense of social justice, about a wide range of subjects, including agriculture, assassination, colonialization, disease, freedom, hunger, politics, pollution, slavery, urbanization, and war -- Lawrence D. Meinert * Science * [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 * Publisher's Weekly * A far-reaching survey of the central role played by human needs and desires in the destruction of Earth * Kirkus Reviews * What sets Amrith’s history apart is that he gives himself no fixed place to stand. He refuses to occupy a Eurocentric viewpoint, or any other developing instead a planetary awareness… Amrith’s panopticon-like vision is one we need to adopt as we must assume responsibility for the health of the planet… [his] reading is astonishing -- Kathleen Jamie * New Statesman * A must-read history of our environmental crisis... [Amrith is an] engaging guide, with a lyrical style and a talent for storytelling... It is beautifully and clearly written, well-researched and finds new perspectives on much-discussed issues. Strongly recommended -- Michael Marshall * New Scientist * [An] expansive book... Amrith recognizes the inseparability of environmental distress and political, economic, and social factors * The New York Times * Sunil Amrith’s Burning Earth, which is nothing short of a history of the world, is 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. It will set you on fire. --Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States -- Jill Lepore * Advance praise *


Author Information

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.

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