Late Victorian Holocausts El Ni?o Famines and the Making of the The Third World

Davis legt in dit wetenschappelijk goed doortimmerd boek aan de hand van de serie orkanen van de afgelopen ca. 100 jaar (bijv. el Ni?o) de relatie tussen het negentiende eeuwse (en latere) imperialisme van de westerse wereld, en de natuurrampen en hongersnoden (ten gevolge van misoogsten) die delen van de wereld teisteren, de kiemen voor wat nu heet "Derde Wereld" zaaiend. Een degelijke studie naar de klimatologische, economische en koloniale geschiedenis, en alle lijnen die daartussen lopen.
Examining a series of El Ni?o-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.
Late Victorian Holocausts focuses on three zones of drought 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 drought were magnified in each case because of singularly destructive policies promulgated by different ruling elites.

Davis argues 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 of peasants' lives.

"Davis has given us a book of substantial contemporary relevance as well as great historical interest . this highly informative book foes well beyond its immediate focus." - Amartya Sen, New York Times