Key Highlights
- £25,000 British Academy Book Prize awarded to Sunil Amrith.
- Book intertwines climate events with human narrative, clarifying roots of today’s environmental crisis.
- Prize commends combination of scholarly depth and captivating storytelling.
- Lifespan of five centuries traced, linking colonialism, industrial growth, mining and wars to ecological change.
Detailed Insights
Amrith, a Yale history professor born to South Indian parents in Kenya and raised in Singapore, brings a global lens to his research. His education at Cambridge and rich cultural exposure inform a synthesis of environmental history with migration and colonial studies.
The Burning Earth maps half a millennium of ecological transformation, illustrating how each epoch—colonial expansions, the surge of the Industrial Revolution, British‑era resource extraction in South Africa, and the aftermath of World II—has progressively altered landscapes and societies.
Judges highlighted the book’s “magnificent narrative” that not only documents damage but also revives forgotten sustainable practices, positioning it as an essential reference for understanding the climate crisis.
Key Concepts
- Environmental History – the study of interactions between humans and their environment over time.
- Carbon Footprint – total greenhouse gas emissions attributable to an individual, organization, or product.
- Colonial Exploitation – extraction of resources and labor under colonial rule, driving ecological degradation.
- Industrialization – rapid economic development accompanied by increased pollution and resource use.
- Climate Crisis – escalating global warming and its adverse environmental, social, and economic effects.