Product Description
The Burning Earth
Author(s): Sunil Amrith
Format: Paperback
An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years
*Winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2025*
*Winner of the the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction 2025*
One of the Observer's 25 Best Books of the Century
'Dazzling... brilliant... exactly the kind of history that we need on our crisis-ridden planet' - Tom Simpson, TLS
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.
About the Author
Sunil Amrith is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History and professor in the School of the Environment at Yale University. He is the author of four books, and a recipient of multiple awards including a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship and the 2024 Fukuoka Prize, and the 2025 Toynbee Prize. He grew up in Singapore and lives in Connecticut.
For custom orders and quotes: shop@schoolspace.co.za
© 2026 Schoolspace. This product description is the exclusive intellectual property of the publisher, protected under copyright law. Unauthorized use, adaption, or copying is strictly prohibited.
