An Environmental History of Latin America
Summary
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An Environmental History of Latin America by Shawn William Miller
A narration of the mutually mortal historical contest between humans and nature in Latin America. Covering a period that begins with Amerindian civilizations and concludes in the region's present urban agglomerations, the work offers an original synthesis of the current scholarship on Latin America's environmental history and argues that tropical nature played a central role in shaping the region's historical development. Human attitudes, populations, and appetites, from Aztec cannibalism to more contemporary forms of conspicuous consumption, figure prominently in the story. However, characters such as hookworms, whales, hurricanes, bananas, dirt, butterflies, guano, and fungi make more than cameo appearances. Recent scholarship has overturned many of our egocentric assumptions about humanity's role in history. Seeing Latin America's environmental past from the perspective of many centuries illustrates that human civilizations, ancient and modern, have been simultaneously more powerful and more vulnerable than previously thought.
'… an important contribution to the subject of environmental studies' Contemporary Review
'Miller's work makes an indispensable contribution to the conceptualisation and feasibility of sustainability, one of the most relevant and urgent problems of our time, giving Latin America a central and strategic place in the discussion.' Journal of Latin American Studies
'Miller's work makes an indispensable contribution to the conceptualisation and feasibility of sustainability, one of the most relevant and urgent problems of our time, giving Latin America a central and strategic place in the discussion.' Journal of Latin American Studies
Shawn W. Miller is the author of Fruitless Trees: Portuguese Conservation and Brazil's Colonial Timber (2000), and has published on Latin America's environmental history in the Hispanic American Historical Review, Forest and Conservation History, and Colonial Latin American Historical Review.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780521612982 |
| ISBN 10 | 0521612985 |
| Title | An Environmental History of Latin America |
| Author | Shawn William Miller |
| Series | New Approaches To The Americas |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| Year published | 2007-08-27 |
| Number of pages | 272 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |