Davis, a brilliant maverick scholar, sets the triumph of the late-nineteenth-century Western imperialism in the context of the catastrophic El Nino weather patterns at that time. A masterly account of climatic, economic and colonial history.ģ. A book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest. But the effects of drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites.ĭavis argues that the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World were sown in this era of High Imperialism, as the price for capitalist modernization was paid in the currency of millions of peasants lives."ġ. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought and subsequent famine: India, Northern China and Northeastern Brazil. 8 maps.Įxamining a series of El Nino-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Mike Davis discloses the intimate, baleful relationship between imperial arrogance and natural incident that combined to produce some of the worst tragedies in human history. Examining a series of El Nino-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the 19th century, Davis shows how the ruling elites helped produce some of the worst tragedies in human history.
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