Main entry:

Davis, Mike, 1946-2022, author.

Title & Author:

Late Victorian holocausts : El Niño famines and the making of the Third World / Mike Davis.

Edition:

Paperback edition.

Publication:

London ; New York : Verso, 2017.

Description:

x, 469 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Preface -- A note on definitions -- Part I. The great drought, 1876-1878. Victoria's ghosts ; "The poor eat their homes" ; Gunboats and messiahs -- Part II. El niño and the new imperialism, 1888-1902. The government of hell ; Skeletons at the feast ; Millenarian revolutions -- Part III. Deciphering ENSO. The mystery of the monsoons ; Climates of hunger -- Part IV. The political ecology of famine. The origins of the Third World ; India : the modernization of poverty ; China : mandates revoked ; Brazil : race and capital in the Nordeste -- Glossary.

Summary:

"Bestselling, magisterial melding of global environmental history and global political history. 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"-- Provided by publisher.

ISBN:

9781784786625 (paperback)
1784786624 (paperback)
(US EBK)
9781781680612
9781781683606

Subject:

Human ecology Developing countries History 19th century.
Political ecology Developing countries History 19th century.
Famines Developing countries History 19th century.
Droughts Developing countries History 19th century.
Imperialism Environmental aspects History 19th century.
Impérialisme Aspect de l'environnement Histoire 19e siècle.
SOCIAL SCIENCE Agriculture & Food.
POLITICAL SCIENCE Economic Conditions.
Droughts.
Ecology.
Famines.
Human ecology.
Political ecology.
Social aspects.
El Niño Current Social aspects Developing countries History 19th century.
Developing countries Environmental conditions History 19th century.
India Environmental conditions History 19th century.
China Environmental conditions History 19th century.
Brazil Environmental conditions History 19th century.
Brazil.
China.
Developing countries.
India.
Pacific Ocean El Niño Current.

Form/genre:

History.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 297650
Call No.: BIB 244003
Status: Available