Sunil S. Amrith

1 month ago | theindiaforum.in | Sunil S. Amrith |Ramachandra Guha |Gita Ramaswamy

The first substantive chapter of Sunil Amrith’s magnificent new book starts in the China of the 13th century, ‘the largest, most populous, and wealthiest agrarian state the world had ever known’. China’s rise had been fostered over the past two centuries by more productive means of rice cultivation. Soon, by relying on better techniques of growing wheat instead, Europe also witnessed a surge in human prosperity and human numbers.

Oct 17, 2024 | nybooks.com | Ana Raquel Minian |Rachel Cusk |Sunil S. Amrith |Christopher Brown

The Crime of Human Movement Two recent books about our immigration system reveal its long history of exploiting vulnerable individuals for financial gain.

Sep 25, 2024 | lithub.com | Sunil S. Amrith

Once upon a time all history was environmental history. Life was governed by the seasons. When the weather gods were fickle, misery followed. Human societies used their ingenuity to wield fire, dam rivers, cut down forests: all to mitigate the risks of living. They harnessed the power of the animals they shared shelter with. Every culture had its gods of beneficence; every culture had dreams of plenty. A thousand years ago, those dreams grew more insistent.

Sep 3, 2024 | theamericanscholar.org | Priscilla Long |Sunil S. Amrith |W. W. Norton

The Burning Earth: A History by Sunil Amrith; W. W. Norton, 432 pp., $35In this devastating and essential world history, Sunil Amrith sets out how we humans, during the past thousand years, have altered Earth and, often as not, ravaged it.

Sep 1, 2024 | literaryreview.co.uk | Sunil S. Amrith

Except, perhaps, by the standards of today’s US presidential candidates, George W Bush has never seemed intellectually formidable. He did, however, once say something wise: in 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans, convinced him that ‘nature is an awesome force’, outclassing his own homeland as the world’s greatest superpower. It is time someone else told the truth about environmental history.