Examining a series of El Nino-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.
Late Victorian Holocausts : El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World - Mike Davis
- Product Code:New
- Availability:In Stock
-
£21.99