Scorched Earth: Environmental Warfare as a Crime against Humanity and Nature

(Hardback)

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Description

A global history of environmental warfare and the case for why it should be a crime The environmental infrastructure that sustains human societies has been a target and instrument of war for centuries, resulting in famine and disease, displaced populations, and the devastation of people's livelihoods and ways of life. Scorched Earth traces the h

Reviews

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[A] sweeping history. . . . Kreike offers a stark corrective and an implicit warning: Humanity is not distinct from nature, and assuming it is can have tragic outcomes. Climate change is one; pandemics are another. In this book, catastrophic warfare is a third. Waiting for the fourth horseman would seem unwise.

"---Tatiana Schlossberg, New York Times Book Review
"Waging war against the Earth is an old business, and this book provides ampleand dispiritingevidence for it." * Kirkus Reviews *
"Might this be the most important topic that most smart, very well educated people have never read a book on [This] treatment is excellent and engaging."---Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
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Overall then, Scorched Earth is a thoroughly researched academic book that sits at the intersection of military history and environmental history and especially delivers for readers of the former. A fascinating topic that is by no means light reading.

"---Leon Vlieger, Inquisitive Biologist
"[A] powerful statement of what people often fail to see amid the horrors of war." * Choice Reviews *

Author Bio

Emmanuel Kreike is professor of history at Princeton University. His books include Environmental Infrastructure in African History: Examining the Myth of Natural Resource Management in Namibia and Re-Creating Eden: Land Use, Environment, and Society in Southern Angola and Northern Namibia. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.