Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years

A brilliant, paradigm-shifting global survey of how human history has reshaped the planet, and vice versa over the last 500 years

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 Portuguese 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.


Review Quotes:
A far-reaching survey of the central role played by human needs and desires in the destruction of Earth.– \”Kirkus Reviews\”
Both dizzying and deracinating, but also, even in its grimness, quite thrilling… Amrith’s panopticon-like vision is one we need to adopt as we must assume responsibility for the health of the planet.–Kathleen Jamie \”New Statesman\”
A must-read history of our environmental crisis.–Michael Marshall \”New Scientist\”
[An] insightful survey of the long human struggle to escape environmental limitations…Whether the casting off of planetary bonds is literal or figurative, the prospect is delicious, and as Amrith so convincingly shows, it has animated the powerful for more than a thousand years. Yet the costs of the attempt are steep, and they are ever harder to escape.–Michelle Nijhuis \”The New York Review\”

Format: Hardback
Pages: 432
Imprint: Allen Lane
Publication date: 07/01/2025