Environment and Empire (Oxford History of the British Empire Companion Series)

European imperialism was extraordinarily far-reaching: a key global historical process of the last 500 years. It locked disparate human societies together over a wider area than any previous imperial expansion; it underpinned the repopulation of the Americas and Australasia; it was the precursor of globalization as we now understand it. Imperialism was inseparable from the history of global environmental change. Metropolitan countries sought raw materials of all kinds, from timber and furs to rubber and oil. They established sugar plantations that transformed island ecologies. Settlers introduced new methods of farming and displaced indigenous peoples. Colonial cities, many of which became great conurbations, fundamentally changed relationships between people and nature. Consumer cultures, the internal combustion engine, and pollution are now ubiquitous. Environmental history deals with the reciprocal interaction between people and other elements in the natural world, and this book illustrates the diverse environmental themes in the history of empire. Initially concentrating on the material factors that shaped empire and environmental change, Environment and Empire discusses the way in which British consumers and manufacturers sucked in resources that were gathered, hunted, fished, mined, and farmed. Yet it is also clear that British settler and colonial states sought to regulate the use of natural resources as well as commodify them. Conservation aimed to preserve resources by exclusion, as in wildlife parks and forests, and to guarantee efficient use of soil and water. Exploring these linked themes of exploitation and conservation, this study concludes with a focus on political reassertions by colonised peoples over natural resources. In a post-imperial age, they have found a new voice, reformulating ideas about nature, landscape, and heritage and challenging, at a local and global level, views of who has the right to regulate nature.

History

Beinart, William

Hughes, Lotte

Europe

Oxford University Press

European imperialism was extraordinarily far-reaching: a key global historical process of the last 500 years. It locked disparate human societies together over a wider area than any previous imperial expansion; it underpinned the repopulation of the Americas and Australasia; it was the precursor of globalization as we now understand it. Imperialism was inseparable from the history of global environmental change. Metropolitan countries sought raw materials of all kinds, from timber and furs to rubber and oil. They established sugar plantations that transformed island ecologies. Settlers introduced new methods of farming and displaced indigenous peoples. Colonial cities, many of which became great conurbations, fundamentally changed relationships between people and nature. Consumer cultures, the internal combustion engine, and pollution are now ubiquitous. Environmental history deals with the reciprocal interaction between people and other elements in the natural world, and this book illustrates the diverse environmental themes in the history of empire. Initially concentrating on the material factors that shaped empire and environmental change, Environment and Empire discusses the way in which British consumers and manufacturers sucked in resources that were gathered, hunted, fished, mined, and farmed. Yet it is also clear that British settler and colonial states sought to regulate the use of natural resources as well as commodify them. Conservation aimed to preserve resources by exclusion, as in wildlife parks and forests, and to guarantee efficient use of soil and water. Exploring these linked themes of exploitation and conservation, this study concludes with a focus on political reassertions by colonised peoples over natural resources. In a post-imperial age, they have found a new voice, reformulating ideas about nature, landscape, and heritage and challenging, at a local and global level, views of who has the right

Kenya stands at a crossroads in its history and heritage, as the nation celebrates its fiftieth anniversary of independence from Britain in 2013. At this important juncture, what parts of its history, including the Mau Mau uprising, do citizens and state wish to remember and commemorate and what is best forgotten or occluded? What does heritage mean to ordinary Kenyans, and what role does it play in building nationhood and forging peace and reconciliation? Focusing on the 1990s to the present, "Managing Heritage, Making Peace" is a timely exploration of the ways in which Kenyans are engaging with the past in the present, including such local initiatives as the community peace museums movement, local and national monuments and other notable commemorative actions. The authors show how Kenya is facing a continuing crisis over nationhood, heritage, memory and identity, which must be resolved to achieve social cohesion and peace.

Managing Heritage, Making Peace: History, Identity and Memory in Contemporary Kenya (International Library of African Studies)

Politics & Social Sciences

Coombes, Annie E.

Karega-Munene

Anthropology

I.B.Tauris

Reference

Indigenous peoples have long suffered from exoticization. Outsiders elevate their beauty, remoteness and difference and do not see beyond this to the real problems they face. The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples looks beyond the exotic images, tracing the stories of different indigenous peoples from their first (and often fatal) contact with explorers and colonizers. Much of this history is told here by indigenous people themselves.They vividly describe why land and the natural world are so special to them; how it feels to be snatched from your family as a child because the government wants to “make you white”; why they are demanding that museums must return the bones of their ancestors; how can they retain their traditional culture while moving with the times; and what kinds of development are positive. This short guide discusses all this and more, raising countless issues for debate.

The No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples

Social Sciences

Verso

Who are indigenous peoples and where do they live around the world? What is the difference between indigenous peoples, tribal peoples, and minorities? Why are the United Nations and the World Bank interested in these definitions? In the No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples, Lotte Hughes provides a broad overview of these topics and enables many indigenous peoples to speak for themselves, including the Barabaig of Tanzania; the Yanomami of Brazil; the Ogiek of Kenya; the Kurds of Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria; the Karamojong of Uganda; peoples in Canada, Brazil, Chile, Southeast Asia, and many others.

No-Nonsense Guide to Indigenous Peoples

Between the Lines

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hughes, Lotte. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hughes, Lotte