The Burning Earth

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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 Spanish 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.

'Sunil Amrith has given us the most readable global environmental history yet... a towering achievement and a joy to read' - J. R. McNeil

'The Burning Earth 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

'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' - Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor

©2024 Sunil Amrith (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critics Review

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
New Statesman
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
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
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
Science

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