Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World [Paperback]

"Davis has given us a book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest." -- Amartya Sen, New York Times "A masterly account of climactic, economic and colonial history." - New Scientist "Generations of historians largely ignored the implications [of the great famines of the nineteenth century] and until recently dismissed them as 'climactic accidents'... Late Victorian Holocausts proves them wrong." - LA Times Best Books of 2001 "David, a brilliant, maverick scholar, sets the triumph of late-nineteenth-century Western imperialism in the context of the catastrophic El Nino weather patterns at that time ... This is groundbreaking, mind-stretching stuff." - The Independent "Wide Ranging and compelling ... a remarkable achievement." - Times Literary Supplement

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, 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 and to sow the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the third world.

Winner of the World History Association Book Award for 2002

Examining a series of El Nino-induced droughts and the famines that they spawned around the globe in the last third of the nineteenth 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 and to sow the seeds of underdevelopment in what later became known as the Third World.

Late Victorian Holocausts, focuses on the three zones of draught and subsequent famine: India, Northern China, and Northeastern Brazil. All were affected by the same global climatic factors that caused massive crop failures, and all experienced brutal famines that decimated local populations. But the effects of draught were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by differing ruling elites, policies that in effect were crimes against humanity.

In this his black book of liberal capitalism, Davis exposes the human costs of globalization; arguing 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 and millions of peasants' lives.

Late Victorian Holocausts is the first serious examination of El Nino's imprint on modern history. As globalization continues, seemingly unchecked, and we pass silently through the centenary of the 1899-1902 famines in India, Davis presents a shocking indictment of the costs of imperialism and ignorance, arrogance and sloth.

'Davis has given us a book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest.' Amartya Sen

'A masterly account of climatic, economic and colonial history.' New Scientist

'Generations of historians largely ignored the implications [of the great famines of the late nineteenth century] and until recently dismissed them as 'climatic accidents' ... Late Victorian Holocausts proves them wrong.' LA Times Best Books of 2001

'Davis, a brilliant maverick scholar, sets the triumph of late-nineteenth-century Western imperialism in the context of the catastrophic El Nino weather patterns at that time ... This is groundbreaking, mind-stretching stuff.' The Independent

'Wide ranging and compelling ... a remarkable achievement.' Times Literary Supplement

Mike Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Ecology of Fear and Magical Urbanism. He lives in Papa'aloa, Hawaii