The environment and world history [[electronic resource] /] / edited by Edmund Burke III and Kenneth Pomeranz

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910789000803321
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2009
• ISBN: 1-282-77257-0; 9786612772573; 0-520-94348-1
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (381 p.)
• Collana: The California world history library ; ; 9
• Classificazione: NB 5600
• Disciplina: 304.2
• Soggetti: Human ecology - History; Nature - Effect of human beings on - History; Environmental sciences - History
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-336) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- THE CALIFORNIA WORLD HISTORY LIBRARY -- CONTENTS -- FIGURES, MAPS, AND TABLES -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1. Introduction: World History and Environmental History -- 2. The Big Story: Human History, Energy Regimes, and the Environment -- 3. Toward a Global System of Property Rights in Land -- 4. The Transformation of the Middle Eastern Environment, 1500 b.c.e.-2000 C.E.. -- 5. The Transformation of China's Environment, 1500-2000 -- 6. The Rhine as a World River -- 7. Continuity and Transformation: Colonial Rice Frontiers and Their Environmental Impact on the Great River Deltas of Mainland Southeast Asia -- 8. Beyond the Colonial Paradigm: African History and Environmental History in Large-Scale Perspective -- 9. Environmental Histories of India: Of States, Landscapes, and Ecologies -- 10. Latin American Environmental History: A Shifting Old/New Field -- 11. The Predatory Tribute-Taking State: A Framework for Understanding Russian Environmental History -- Select Bibliography -- List of Contributors -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Since around 1500 C.E., humans have shaped the global environment in ways that were previously unimaginable. Bringing together leading ; environmental historians and world historians, this book offers an overview of global environmental history throughout this remarkable 500-year period. In eleven essays, the contributors examine the connections between environmental change and other major topics of early modern and modern world history: population growth, commercialization, imperialism, industrialization, the fossil fuel revolution, and more. Rather than attributing environmental change largely to European science, technology, and capitalism, the essays illuminate a series of culturally distinctive, yet often parallel developments arising in many parts of the world, leading to intensified exploitation of land and water. The wide range of regional studies-including some in Russia, China, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Southern Africa, and Western Europe-together with the book's broader thematic essays makes The Environment and World History ideal for courses that seek to incorporate the environment and environmental change more fully into a truly integrative understanding of world history. CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Adas, William Beinart, Edmund Burke III, Mark Cioc, Kenneth Pomeranz, Mahesh Rangarajan, John F. Richards, Lise Sedrez, Douglas R. Weiner