While this book will not have the impact of Davis's City of Quartz--a scathing indictment of L.A.'s environmental ravagement, economic disparity and racial divides--in a perfect world, it would. Its subject is nothing less than the creation of what we now call "The Third World," through a complex series of seemingly disparate natural and market-related events beginning in the 1870s. Davis dives into the data and journalism of the period with a vengeance, showing that the seemingly unprecedented droughts across northern Africa, India and China in the 1870s and 1890s are consistent with what we now know to be El Ni¤o's effects, and that it was political and market forces (which are never impersonal, Davis insists), and not a lack of potential stores and transportation, that kept grain from the more than 50 million people who starved to death. Chapters brilliantly reconstruct the political, economic, ecological and racial climate of the time, as well as the horrific deaths by hunger and thirst that besieged the peasantries of the afflicted c0untries. As in City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear and Magical Urbanism, Davis's synthetic powers, rendering mountains of data into an accessible and cogent form, are matched by his acid castigations of the murders and moral failings that have attended the advance of capitalism, and by cogent detours into the work of journalists and theorists who have come before him, decrying injustice and rallying the opposition. (Feb.)Forecast: Although this book's historical subject seems vastly removed from contemporary American life, it may get some media attention for its El Ni¤o-based arguments. City of Quartz still guarantees review attention for any Davis project, which may draw history buffs who haven't heard of him. His substantial core readership will seek out the book either way, and the book's synthesis of hardcore data will also hold appeal for poli-sci syllabi and university libraries.

Review

A masterly account of climatic, economic and colonial history...an impressive achievement. -- New Scientist, Fred Pearce, 27 January 2001

Gripping...Davis has given us a book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest. -- New York Times Book Review, Amartya Sen

The first to extend this powerful mixture of environmental, political and socioeconomic analysis on a worldwide scale...a scholarly text. -- San Francisco Chronicle, William L. Fox, 31 December 2000

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City Of Quartz by Mike Davis Paperback
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5.0 out of 5 stars Winner of 2002 World History Association Book Award!, Feb 9 2002

David A. Chappell, Chair WHA Book Award Committee (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Late Victorian Holocausts (Hardcover)

The Annual Book Award Committee of the World History Association is pleased to announce that Mike Davis' Late Victorian Holocausts has won its 2002 prize, because it synthesizes scientific and historical data into a highly readable, well-documented and well-researched study of the interplay between the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and global political and economic imperialism in the late 19th century. It thus makes a very significant contribution to transregional history in a way that will and should reach a wider audience than academic historians.

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5.0 out of 5 stars For the record, Feb 19 2004

John C. Landon "nemonemini" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Late Victorian Holocausts (Paperback)

Marxists are routinely (and not surprisingly) confronted with the effects of their acts and theories. Yet the market system is never confronted with the facts of the case, nor are these allowed to impinge with any critique of ideology. Anyone with reveries intact here should read this book, a very well done account of the interaction of global climate (the El Nino phenomenon in action, by hypothesis), colonialism, and imperialism. A sort of Black Book of capitalism. Add fifty million to King Leopold's ten and we are not far short of the Bolshevik world record. The vignettes and detail here are excellent, a gripping tour into archival amnesia.

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5.0 out of 5 stars El Nino and Imperialism: A Tragic Combination, Nov 17 2002

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Late Victorian Holocausts (Paperback)

Late Victorian Holocausts is a double investigation, first of the role played by ENSO, the El Nino Southern Oscillation which affects much of the world's weather in the devastating famines which marked the late nineteenth century, and secondly of the role European (primarily British) imperialism took in deepening those famines. Thus part of the book is a scientific study of ENSO, while the rest is a chronicle of the horrendous suffering in India, China, and Brazil. Even if you are familiar with the typical nineteenth century European Social Darwinist free trader ideology, the callousness of the attitudes of British viceroys and plentipotentiaries towards the suffering Indian and Chinese peasants is breathtaking. Similarly, the arrogant disregard of the sufferings of the Brazilians by their government is beyond belief.

In contrast with the insouciance of the Europeans when faced with disaster, Davis provides some fascinating information proving that earlier famines in India and China before imperialism weakened their societies were dealt with swiftly and humanely, with a fine regard for easing suffering and preserving human life.

The most important message of this book is that much of today's Third World is the direct result of natural disaster augmented by human indifference.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to over rate the importance of this book
There have been droughts and other major agricultural
failures in China, India, and Africa for millennium,
but the accompanying mass starvations and ecological... Read more

Published on Aug 29 2002 by Ken McCarthy

5.0 out of 5 stars A staggering indictment of British imperialism
Mike Davis has fired the opening shot of the 21st century: imperialists stand accused of murdering tens of millions. Read more