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Now in a concise edition created expressly for students and general
readers, this widely hailed study traces the transformation of the
tropics in modern times. Exploring the central role of the United
States in the ongoing devastation of tropical lands, Richard P.
Tucker shows how, in the late 1800s, American speculators first
became participants in the centuries-long history of European
economic and ecological hegemony in the tropics. Beginning as
buyers in the tropical ports of the Atlantic and Pacific, they
evolved into land speculators, controlling and managing the areas
where tropical crops were grown for carefully fostered consumer
markets at home. As corporate agro-industry emerged, the
speculators took direct control of the ecological destinies of many
tropical lands. Supported by the U.S. government's diplomatic and
military protection, they built private empires in the Caribbean,
Central and South America, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West
Africa. Yankee investors and plantation managers mobilized
engineers, agronomists, and loggers to undertake what they called
the "Conquest of the Tropics," claiming to bring civilization to
benighted peoples and cultivation to unproductive nature. In
competitive cooperation with local landed and political elites,
they not only cleared natural forests but also displaced multicrop
tribal and peasant lands with monocrop export plantations rooted in
private property regimes. In a masterful narrative, Tucker
highlights the unrelenting pressure that the demands of U.S.
consumerism placed on fragile tropical lands. The forced
domestication of widely varied natural systems ultimately led to a
devastating decline in biodiversity. The author brings his analysis
to life with a series of vivid case studies of sugar, bananas,
coffee, rubber, beef, and timber each a virtual empire in itself.
All readers who are interested in environmental degradation and its
links to the world economy will be enlightened by this nuanced
history."
The fate of towns and cities stands at the center of the
environmental history of World War II. Broad swaths of cityscapes
were destroyed by the bombing of targets such as transport hubs,
electrical grids, and industrial districts, and across Europe,
Asia, and the Americas, urban environments were transformed by the
massive mobilization of human and natural resources to support the
conflict. But at the same time, the war saw remarkable resilience
among the human and non-human residents of cities. Foregrounding
the concept of urban resilience, this collection uncovers the
creative survival strategies that city-dwellers of all kinds turned
to in the midst of environmental devastation. As the first major
study at the intersection of environmental, urban, and military
history, The Resilient City in World War II lays the groundwork for
an improved understanding of rapid change in urban environments,
and how societies may adapt.
The fate of towns and cities stands at the center of the
environmental history of World War II. Broad swaths of cityscapes
were destroyed by the bombing of targets such as transport hubs,
electrical grids, and industrial districts, and across Europe,
Asia, and the Americas, urban environments were transformed by the
massive mobilization of human and natural resources to support the
conflict. But at the same time, the war saw remarkable resilience
among the human and non-human residents of cities. Foregrounding
the concept of urban resilience, this collection uncovers the
creative survival strategies that city-dwellers of all kinds turned
to in the midst of environmental devastation. As the first major
study at the intersection of environmental, urban, and military
history, The Resilient City in World War II lays the groundwork for
an improved understanding of rapid change in urban environments,
and how societies may adapt.
In the late 1800s American entrepreneurs became participants in the
400-year history of European economic and ecological hegemony in
the tropics. Beginning as buyers in the tropical ports of the
Atlantic and Pacific, they evolved into land speculators,
controlling and managing the areas where tropical crops were grown
for carefully fostered consumer markets at home. As corporate
agro-industry emerged, the speculators took direct control of the
ecological destinies of many tropical lands. Supported by the U.S.
government's diplomatic and military protection, they migrated and
built private empires in the Caribbean, Central and South America,
the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and West Africa.
Yankee investors and plantation managers mobilized engineers,
agronomists, and loggers to undertake what they called the
"Conquest of the Tropics," claiming to bring civilization to
benighted peoples and cultivation to unproductive nature. In
competitive cooperation with local landed and political elites,
they not only cleared natural forests but also displaced multicrop
tribal and peasant lands with monocrop export plantations rooted in
private property regimes.
This book is a rich history of the transformation of the tropics in
modern times, pointing ultimately to the declining biodiversity
that has resulted from the domestication of widely varied natural
systems. Richard P. Tucker graphically illustrates his study with
six major crops, each a virtual empire in itself--sugar, bananas,
coffee, rubber, beef, and timber. He concludes that as long as
corporate-dominated free trade is ascendant, paying little heed to
its long-term ecological consequences, the health of the tropical
world is gravely endangered.
This anthology surveys the ecological impacts of the First World
War. Editors Richard P. Tucker, Tait Keller, J. R. McNeill, and
Martin Schmidt bring together a list of experienced authors who
explore the global interactions of states, armies, civilians, and
the environment during the war. They show how the First World War
ushered in enormous environmental changes, including the
devastation of rural and urban environments, the consumption of
strategic natural resources such as metals and petroleum, the
impact of war on urban industry, and the disruption of agricultural
landscapes leading to widespread famine. Taking a global
perspective, Environmental Histories of the First World War
presents the ecological consequences of the vast destructive power
of the new weaponry and the close collaboration between militaries
and civilian governments taking place during this time, showing how
this war set trends for the rest of the century.
This anthology surveys the ecological impacts of the First World
War. Editors Richard P. Tucker, Tait Keller, J. R. McNeill, and
Martin Schmidt bring together a list of experienced authors who
explore the global interactions of states, armies, civilians, and
the environment during the war. They show how the First World War
ushered in enormous environmental changes, including the
devastation of rural and urban environments, the consumption of
strategic natural resources such as metals and petroleum, the
impact of war on urban industry, and the disruption of agricultural
landscapes leading to widespread famine. Taking a global
perspective, Environmental Histories of the First World War
presents the ecological consequences of the vast destructive power
of the new weaponry and the close collaboration between militaries
and civilian governments taking place during this time, showing how
this war set trends for the rest of the century.
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