![]() ![]() Mike Davis examines the relationships among (a) late-nineteenth-century famines in much of what we now call the Third World, (b) the climatic effect known as ENSO (El NioSouthern Oscillation), (c) Western imperialism, and. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites.ĭavis 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. The dust-jacket blurbs use stunning, eloquent, wholly original, and first-rate to describe the author and this work, and the praise is apt. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China and Northeastern Brazil. Late Victorian Holocaustsfocuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China and Northeastern Brazil. Winner of the World History Association Book Awardīlending global environmental history with political history, this bestselling book explores “late-nineteenth-century Western imperialism in the context of catastrophic El Niño weather patterns at that time” ( Independent)Įxamining 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. ![]()
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