The Nature of Empire

Modern Imperialism and the Roots of the Anthropocene
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-0-367-76015-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 266 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Themes in Environmental History

The Nature of Empire exposes the central role of modern imperialism in the development of contemporary environmentalism and environmental science. It builds this case through an investigation of five major modern empires: Britain, France, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan.

This book offers readers a global environmental history of modern imperialism that actively engages Western-based and non-Western based empires. As this study shows, imperialism ultimately transformed human perceptions of nature and the environment in significant, lasting, and conflicting ways. It both inspired modern conservationist practices and fueled opposition to environmental policies in colonial contexts. It also spurred the development of climate science, which helped to reveal the environmental toll of imperial exploitation and drive efforts to fight it. The environmental and political legacies of empire remain evident today through unmitigated anthropogenic climate change and the increasing incidence of extreme weather, which tends to disproportionately impact marginalized peoples.

This book stands as a useful and accessible resource for students, scholars and all those seeking to better understand environmental history, imperial legacies and the roots of contemporary climate challenges.

Zielgruppe

Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Duffy, Andrea

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Technische Wissenschaften Umwelttechnik | Umwelttechnologie Umwelttechnik
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltschutz, Umwelterhaltung
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umwelttechnik
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften, Biologie: Sachbuch, Naturführer
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Maps

Introduction

Part I: Environmental Exploitation

Chapter 1: Conquest and Conflict

Chapter 2: Forests and Fields

Chapter 3: Industrialization and Resources

Part II: Environmental Challenges

Chapter 4: Climate Change and Natural Disasters

Chapter 5: Health and Disease

Chapter 6: Extreme Environments

Part III: Environmental Perceptions

Chapter 7: The Environmental Civilizing Mission

Chapter 8: Conservation and Preservation

Chapter 9: Science and the Anthropocene

Conclusion

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Andrea Duffy, Ph.D., is an associate professor of history at Colorado State University. Her research examines human-environmental relations around the world in the modern era, with an emphasis on imperialism and colonial contexts, cross-cultural connections, and the role of climate change. She is the author of Nomad’s Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World (2019), winner of the Weyerhaeuser Book Award.