Late Victorian Holocausts

Mike Davis is the author of several books including City of Quartz , The Monster at Our Door , Buda's Wagon , and Planet of Slums . He is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in San Diego.

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

"Davis's range is stunning ... He combines political economy, meteorology, and ecology with vivid narratives to create a book that is both a gripping read and a major conceptual achievement. Lots of us talk about writing 'world history' and 'interdisciplinary history': here is the genuine article."
-Kenneth Pomeranz, author of The Great Divergence

"The global climate meets a globalizing political economy, the fundamentals of one clashing with the fundamentalisms of the other. Mike Davis tells the story with zest, anger, and insight."
-Stephen J. Pyne, author of World Fire

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

" Late Victorian Holocausts will redefine the way we think about the European colonial project. After reading this, I defy even the most ardent nationalist to feel proud of the so-called 'achievements' of empire."
- Observer

"Devastating."
- San Francisco Chronicle

"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."
- Los Angeles Times (Best Books of 2001)

"Wide ranging and compelling ... a remarkable achievement."
- Times Literary Supplement

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

"A hero of the Left, Davis is part polemicist, part historian, and all Marxist."
-Dale Peck, Village Voice

"The catalogue of cruelty Davis has unearthed is jaw-dropping ... Late Victorian Holocausts is as ugly as it is