The Nutmeg's Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amazonundefined
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Description
A powerful work of history, essay, testimony, and polemic, Amitav Ghosh's new book traces our contemporary planetary crisis back to the discovery of the New World and the sea route to the Indian Ocean. The Nutmeg's Curse argues that the dynamics of climate change today are rooted in a centuries-old geopolitical order constructed by Western colonialism. At the center of Ghosh's narrative is the now-ubiquitous spice nutmeg. The history of the nutmeg is one of conquest and exploitation--of both human life and the natural environment. In Ghosh's hands, the story of the nutmeg becomes a parable for our environmental crisis, revealing the ways human history has always been entangled with earthly materials such as spices, tea, sugarcane, opium, and fossil fuels. Our crisis, he shows, is ultimately the result of a mechanistic view of the earth, where nature exists only as a resource for humans to use for our own ends, rather than a force of its own, full of agency and meaning.
Writing against the backdrop of the global pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests, Ghosh frames these historical stories in a way that connects our shared colonial histories with the deep inequality we see around us today. By interweaving discussions on everything from the global history of the oil trade to the migrant crisis and the animist spirituality of Indigenous communities around the world, The Nutmeg's Curse offers a sharp critique of Western society and speaks to the profoundly remarkable ways in which human history is shaped by non-human forces.
Recenzja
Diagnosing our intricately inter-linked political, economic, and environmental crises,
The Nutmeg's Curse
is a book like no other in its combination of moral passion, intellectual rigor, and literary elegance. And from its effortless synthesis of contemporary scholarship and indigenous knowledge systems emerges an irrefutable argument--that we must rethink our fundamental assumptions about human history.
-- "Pankaj Mishra, author of Age of Anger"
Illuminating...[Ghosh] wants us to reckon with broader structures of power, involving 'the physical subjugation of people and territory, ' and, crucially, the 'idea of conquest, as a process of extraction.' The world-as-resource perspective not only depletes our environment of the raw materials we seek; it ultimately depletes it of meaning.
-- "New Yorker"
The effect of Ghosh's archival research, far-flung travel reporting, deep thinking, and eloquent writing is at once enlightening and depressing. There are plenty of debates to be had with some of his analyses and conclusions, but I bet you will come away thinking he's more right than he is wrong, and you will understand the climate catastrophe in a new way.
-- "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
With literary precision, [Ghosh] delves into the history and culture of conquest, drawing a direct line from actions committed hundreds of years ago to the planet's current predicament. A singular achievement and a title of its time,
The Nutmeg's Curse
reminds us why the land is crying.
-- "Booklist"
O autorze
Amitav Ghosh
is a novelist and essayist whose many books include the acclaimed Ibis Trilogy (
Sea of Poppies
,
River of Smoke
, and
Flood of Fire
),
Gun Island
,
Jungle Nama: A Story of the Sundarban
, and
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
, the latter also published by the University of Chicago Press.
Sam Dastor
studied English at Cambridge and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His early theatrical experience includes a spell at the National Theatre under Sir Laurence Olivier and time spent acting in the West End. For the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has been seen in
Timon of Athens
,
Tales from Ovid
, and a world tour of
A Servant to Two Masters
. His many television appearances include
I, Claudius
;
Yes, Minister
;
Mountbatten
;
Julius Caesar
; and
Fortunes of War
. He has also appeared in the films
Made
,
Jinnah
, and
Such a Long Journey
, recorded over a thousand broadcasts for the BBC, and narrated numerous audio books.
Product information
- Język:Angielski
- Wydawca:Blackstone Publishing
- Data publikacji:26 lipca 2022
- ISBN-13:979-8212010412
- Author:Amitav Ghosh
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