An Environmental History of Latin America

ISBN-13: 9780521848534 / Angielski / Twarda / 2007 / 272 str.

Utah) Shawn William Miller (Brigham Young University

Opis

This book narrates the mutually mortal historical contest between humans and nature in Latin America. Covering a period that begins with Amerindian civilizations and concludes in the region's present urban agglomerations, the work offers an original synthesis of the current scholarship on Latin America's environmental history and argues that tropical nature played a central role in shaping the region's historical development. Seeing Latin America's environmental past from the perspective of many centuries illustrates that human civilizations, ancient and modern, have been simultaneously more powerful and more vulnerable than previously thought.

Recenzje

'Miller's work makes an indispensable contribution to the conceptualisation and feasibility of sustainability, one of the most relevant and urgent problems of our time, giving Latin America a central and strategic place in the discussion.' Journal of Latin American Studies

Spis treści

Introduction: props and scenery; 1. An old world before it was 'new'; 2. Nature's conquests; 3. The colonial balance sheet; 4. Tropical determinism; 5. Human determination; 6. Asphyxiated habitats; 7. Developing environmentalism; Epilogue: Cuba's latest revolution.