Book Description
Examining a series of El Niño-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. 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.
Customer Reviews:
Why so many are poor..........2007-08-27
One of the major perennial topics of research in the social sciences is "Why are some nations rich and others poor?" Tackled from the time of Plato onwards, many texts have been written on this subject, from many points of view. Like the other sciences, the huge advances in metrology, analytical techniques, and data collection, manipulation and visualization using computers in the 20th century has helped scientists connect dots that once were thought unlinked. And so answers to this question have become more comprehensive, more factual-based, and more pressing in the amount of evidence brought to bear. This book attempts to answer this question by examining the economic divergence of the world's major civilizations in the approximate period of 1860 - 1920 AD. The civilizations examined include Brazil, Indonesia, France, England, the USA, Philippines, India, China, Ethiopia, and Russia. Specifically, England, France and the USA underwent huge economic growth and subsequent improvements in the standard of living, while China, India and many other parts of the world descended into Third World status that have lasted until the late 20th century.
The author examines data for these countries such as suspot cycles, birth and death tolls, annual rainfall, sea temperatures, acres farmed and acres abandoned by farmers, and economic transaction data such as trade volume between specific agents (i.e. countries). Looking at all of this, the author puts forth the theory that abrupt weather patterns due to El Nino and La Nina occurrences in this time period substantially weakened the agricultural sectors of numerous countries. This occurred as technological progress in transportation and communication was creating the global economy with humans (slaves), clothing, precious metals, and food produce (crops) being the primary objects of trade. The weakened countries, nearly all of which were centralized monarchies, were colonized by the First World democracies. Within specific nations like the USA and Brazil, one region might rise in prominence vis-a-vis a decline in another region. The results included gradual but radical changes in power structures that lead to famines in times of poor agricultural output. The poor agricultural output was due to bad weather and the forced transitions to cash crops; the famines was caused by evil colonial policies. The final tragedy was tens of millions of dead peasants across the world in what is now known as the Third World.
Impressive Synthesis: 4.5 stars.......2007-06-28
In 1887-1888, former President US Grant undertook a world tour. In stop after stop, Grant and his party witnessed scenes of famine and mass death. This was no coincidence, Nature and other scientific journals published accounts of approximately coincident famines circling the globe. Millions died. Remarkably, this global disaster was only one of three major world spanning famines in the final quarter of the 19th century, all with death tolls in the millions. The explanation for these events was not uncovered for decades. In the 1960s, Jacob Bjerknes of UCLA synthesized approximately a century of meterological and climatological data and speculation with his description of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) as a major driver of world weather. All the great 19th century famines were driven by weather events resulting from unusually strong ENSOs.
Davis does a very nice job of describing the character and history of the discovery of the ENSO, the history of the devastating 19th century famines, and the evidence correlating ENSO changes with the famines. This is a model of integrating diverse scholarship to produce a synthesis with considerable explanatory power. These sections are very well written and leave the reader with powerful impressions of the world wide extent and severity of the famines.
Davis also makes a strong and largely successful effort at further elaboration and synthesis by integrating the social and economic history of the 19th century into his discussions of the great famines. Davis argues that the development of the world economy under European hegemony resulted in a series of changes in many regions that altered traditional societies in ways that made these societies more vulnerable to the effects of El Nino events. The increasing emphasis on cash crops for the world market, for example, eroded traditional subsistence farming that offered some safeguards against famine. Davis documents this feature best for the case of colonial India, where he can draw on a critical literature dating back to the 19th century and where successive British administrations behaved abysmally.
Davis also discusses several other societies impacted by the great famines, notably Qing China and Northeastern Brazil. Quite a few other regions are mentioned at least briefly. Davis has probably bitten off a bit too much in some of these sections. His effort to be comprehensive leads sometimes to superficial coverage.
Davis takes considerable pains to rebut the traditional argument that these famines were a Malthusian consequence of over-population. This is the complement to his argument that the 19th century European imperialism greatly exacerbated the consequences of El Nino events. In the case of India and some other regions, like the Phillipines and Dutch dominated Java, he makes a very good case. In the case of China, his argument is less powerful. By his own account, the horrible vulnerability of China, particularly North China, stems more from ecological consequences of population growth in the 18th and early 19th century plus the decay of the power of the Qing state. In all fairness to Davis, British imperialism did contribute to the decline of the Qing state.
Davis argues also with some force that the great famines contributed to the immiseration of China, India, and many other regions, contributing to the 20th century backwardness of the Third World. This is such an ambitious book that Davis is not always successful, especially in the second half fo the book, in presenting a complete story. Nonetheless, this is an unusually informative and even daring book.
Imperialism: the deadliest stage of capitalism.......2007-05-27
Marx wrote about capital's destruction of the old social organizations of the societies it enters into, either originally or by force, that "the history of this, their expropriation, is written in the annals of mankind in letters of blood and fire". Mike Davis demonstrates that this is, indeed, the case, and not just for Western Europe either. Focusing on the case examples of Brazil, India and China, Davis shows irrefutably how weather fluctuations, known as El Ninõ phenomena, combined with free traderism, colonialism and capitalist organization to create a series of harvest failures, famines, epidemics and regressions compared to which the Biblical plagues are child's play.
The first part of the book describes the various mass famines that occurred in northeastern Brazil, central and northern India, and central and northern China in the period of the apogee of colonialism, namely roughly 1870-1910. This matter is certainly not for the light of heart: the scale of the famines is such that they far exceed anything ever experienced under Mao or Stalin combined, and the indifference and repression of the the British and other colonialist elites in the face of so much suffering is staggering, evoking parallels with nazism. Of course Mike Davis' usual ill-chosen title attempts to make precisely this comparison, which rather weakens instead of reinforcing the effect of his book, but the facts speak for themselves regardless. Nothing can describe the effect it must have had on the Indian population to be forced to pay for British wars in Afghanistan and South Africa as well as a tremendously grand Jubilee for Queen Victoria, while in the meantime tens of millions of peasants were dying, in some district leading to reductions in population of almost two-thirds. Such is the effect of Whiggish history still that these facts are almost not known at all, and are never taught in high school history books. But everywhere capitalism goes, it leaves behind such corpses.
The second part of the book is a rather technical discussion of weather patterns, especially the oscillation known as ENSO, leading to the El Niño phenomena. Davis also delves into the scientific discussions of these phenomena both during the period of capitalist famines and in contemporary meteorology. This part of the book is furnished with strong statistical data, which will primarily be of interest to people engaged in studying weather patterns, as well as agriculturists because of the importance of these patterns for monsoons etc.
The third and final part of the book picks up where the first one left off, and goes into more detail about the social organizations of Brazil, India and China both before the colonialist period and during it. Davis produces interesting evidence to the account that not only was the average standard of living for the majority of the people quite higher in India and China than in Europe during the 18th Century, their degree of productivity in terms of manufacturing was higher as well. This to directly contradict the many Whiggish histories, like Landes and others, who posit the societies of India and China as stagnant and unproductive from the start. Instead, Mike Davis hypothesizes that the real reason for the sudden collapse in effectivity and productivity of India and China is the military involvement of (mainly) the British in these regions. Subjugating India entirely to a system of hyper-exploitation for the sole benefit of paying for the huge British military and for the interests of the factory manufacturers and traders in Manchester and London (whose direct influence over Indian Raj policy is shockingly large); and in China forcing the government into such large-scale wars and interventions against the British as to make the Qing dynasty go entirely bankrupt and unable to pay for the vast infrastructure and reserve funds, as well as destroying the most effective administation the world had ever seen, the Imperial magistrature system, from the inside via opium trade corruption. Davis makes plausible, if not quite proven, therefore that the downfall of India and China as powers in the 19th Century was exogenous rather than endogenous to these societies.
But what is most important about this book is the enormity of what it describes: the incredibly large-scale death of the subjugated and exploited peoples of what would later form the 'Third' or developing world. By even modest estimates the various preventable famines in China during 1850-1900 alone must have killed some 30-60 million people, and in India probably again anywhere between 30 and 85 million. Then if we add to that the deaths in Brazil (not exploited by foreign powers this time, but by their own capitalist plutocracy), of various African nations, as well as the costs of rebellion and civil war caused by the social disintegration resulting from invasion and colonialism, we get quite a pretty picture: indeed the 20th Century can hardly be considered bloodier than the 19th was. And this is called, by historians, the "Belle Époque"! One wonders if those who write so-called "Black Books of Communism" etc. are even aware of the lethality of capital.
Look at History from an Alarming Perspective.......2007-01-04
This book recounts in detailed, well documented ways how famines occured in various regions of the world because of El Nino and La Nina weather patterns. This part of the author's message is not difficult to believe, though the science and climatology is complex. The alarming assertion, also extrodinarily well documented, is that British (and other European nations") colonial rule in these areas disrupted the ways in which these cultures traditionally handled famine conditions by focusing the local economies on profit making enterprises benefitting the British, and responded with incredible callousness to the utter misery that resulted. Those who generally think of the British as a civilized, Christian people will be shaken by their deliberate actions which caused millions of deaths. My criticism of the book is the absence of a summary chapter, and the lack of editing for readability. This book is difficult to read, and should be widely read.
Davis Book.......2007-01-04
An interesting take on hurricanes in Cuba. Very interesting when compared to the United States. Read this book for a history of natural disasters class. If you are interested in natural disaster, consider reading Kenneth Hewitt's work about natural disaster from the point of a geologist.
Book Description
Detailed volume includes 100 front and side elevations, floor plans for five city houses, a country house with a French roof, a summer house, various cottages, more.
Customer Reviews:
Complete.......2007-06-11
From Basement to Attic this book gives the reader full coverage on the structures it covers. All floors and all sides Plus.
A must have for any interested in the homes of this period.
No library of the subject of Victorian architecture is complete with out it.
An excellent resource for lovers of Victorian architecture.......2001-06-26
"Victorian City and Country Houses: Plans and Details," by Geo. E. Woodward, is a visually rich window into the architecture of the late 19th century. This book is an unabridged reprint of a volume originally published in 1877 under the title "Woodward's National Architect, Vol. II."
This book contains floor plans and elevations (both front and side) for both row houses and stand-alone houses. One fascinating aspect of this book is the inclusion of plans for the basements and attics, in addition to those for the primary floors. Also included are designs for gazebos and other structures.
You will see many of your favorite Victorian era architectural elements in this book: towers, covered porches, mansard roofs, and more. A series of detail pages focus on some specific decorative elements: dormer windows, balusters, finials, roof cresting, etc. Overall, an excellent book.
My life long affair with Victorian Archietecture.......2000-06-18
has led me to this facinating and compelling book. Although I'm certain there are simmilar books out on the market, this was the one that I first picked up. Prior to this time, I had been looking at home planning magazines in a vain attempt for needed inspiration. Even if you do not own a home or are planning in the near future, this book is too good to pass up.
Customer Reviews:
These interiors are English, not American........2002-06-13
The book is full of quality photographs, but the interiors are full of furniture, decorative and useful objects, and details of building construction that are strange to American eyes and could not easily be duplicated in this country. Examples are English cookstoves, numerous exposed timberframes in interior walls, odd lampshades, and furniture that is simply not like the Victorian furniture we commonly find in the U.S. Thus the book is interesting but not inspiring. The same author's The Victorian Home is outstanding and preferable to this in every way. It's also still in print.
Few words, colorful and inspiring photos.......2000-05-04
When we decide to decorate an old house, we need more "to see" than "to read". This is exactly what we get here. In a few words, but with help of extraordinary photos, we learn how Victorians decorated their country or manor homes and how we can adapt the country Victorian interior to our old houses today. Few words but a lot of photos. Helpful to pick ideas.
Average customer rating:
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Victorian and Modern Poetics
Carol T. Christ
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0226104591 |
Book Description
44 authentic and charming designs for vacation homes in varied styles and sizes, most low-to-medium budget, including designs for a Victorian club house, pavilion, school house and a "small seaside chapel." With perspective views, elevations and floor plans. 200 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
a nice little book.......2007-05-03
A nice little book on the subject. Gives the reader a basic covering on a variety of dwellings of the period but unfortunately rarely gives more than one or two floors of a design that uas three or four without providing a full set. Also doesn't provide scale for some designs.
Another great resource from Dover.......2003-08-12
Though these houses purport to be "country houses and seaside cottages," there's little reason they couldn't have been built in any Victorian small town. They range from a tiny three-room structure to a rambling 10-bedroom Dutch Gambrel mansion (called in those days a "villa") to a "club house" (easily altered to private use), a lakeside pavilion, a Baptist chapel, a "stone rectory in Iowa," and a couple of apartment blocks, one of which eerily reminds me of a building not far from my former home. These buildings are primarily of the Eastlake or Queen Anne style, the original book having appeared in 1883, an era when the front stair-hall was often as big as any other room and used as such. You'll need a magnifier to make out some of the details, but if you have any interest at all in late-Victorian domestic architecture, you need to have this volume on your shelves.
Country Houses and Seaside Cottages of the Victorian Era.......2000-08-21
Is a great visually informative book. It gives the reader a better idea of the way homes were built in the late 19th century. The book covers a wide variety of victorian styles and includes plans, perspective views and elevations from a small 4 room cottage, to a huge 36+ room mansion in the Caribbean. I recomend this book to anybody interested in late 19th century victorian architecture.
Country Houses and Seaside Cottages of the Victorian Era.......2000-08-18
is a wonderful book that shows how homes were designed and built in the late 19th century. It covers a variety of victorian styles and has floorplans along with perspective views and elevations from a small 3 room cottage to a 36+ room mansion. This is a great way to learn about victorian architecture.
Country Houses and Seaside Cottages of the Victorian Era.......2000-08-18
This book has great illistrations and floor plans with elevations. It's a great way to learn about the way homes were built in the late 19th century. It also includes specifications for the builder. It contains many plans of many differt styles of victorian architecture from a simple 3 room home, to a 36+ room mansion.
Book Description
Reprint of rare catalog includes floor plans and elevations for 35 different residences, from a one-story seaside summer cottage ($700) to a five-story villa with over 15 rooms, furnace, gas, and "speaking tubes" ($10,000). Invaluable to preservationists, home restorers and anyone intrigued by social and economic aspects of late-Victorian life. 149 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
Four and a Half Stars.......2007-06-09
A delightful book. Each house mentioned is accompanied by a well writtein single paragraph that describes it beutfifully and even adds suggestions on how to build it such as putting the kitchen in the basement which is brilliant for a time before air conditioning. However it only provides two floors of plan rather than a full set. No plans for attic or basement which is a shame. Design XXXV no floor plans at all.
Otherwise great for those interested i archiecture or the history of the victorian period.
A joy.
A visual feast for the home architecture aficionado.......2000-10-29
Dover Publications has done an outstanding service in reprinting home plan books of past eras, and S.B. Reed's "Victorian Dwellings for Village and Country" is one of the best. A complete reproduction of the 1885 edition of this book, the Dover reprint is a fascinating and beautiful glimpse into one of home architecture's richest eras.
The plan of the book is simple and informative. It is a collection of 35 marvelously detailed designs for homes that range from a humble three-room cottage to an imposing boarding house. Each selection contains front and side (and in some cases, rear) elevations, along with floor plans for the first and (for the 2- and 3-story buildings) second stories. Each building is accompanied by a charming descriptive essay and a detailed estimate of the 1885 cost to build it.
The building plans bear such picturesque names as "Lillie Lake," "Willimantic," "Ravenswood," and "Stepping Stones." Interspersed among the design profiles are a few short essays on such relevant topics as plumbing and building cost estimation.
The Victorian language of the descriptive essays is a delight. Consider this description of the New Brighton (Design XV): "It has a tasty and picturesque exterior, and is convenient, cosey [sic] and cheerful within." But even more delightful are the floor plans and elevations. Covered verandas, inglenooks, decorative trim, towers and balconies--the full extravagant vocabulary of Victorian architecture is gloriously preserved.
This book will be treasured by historians, old house restorationists, artists, students of architecture and many more.
Average customer rating:
- Excellent in Beauty and Historical Value
- Mixed Emotions~
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The Country Flowers of a Victorian Lady
Fanny Robinson
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
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ASIN: 006019703X |
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With its wealth of charming watercolors, poems, and notes on the language of flowers, The Country Flowers of a Victorian Lady is destined to be a coffee-table fixture in the home of any lover of old-fashioned flowers. Kept as a private family keepsake for several generations, this gorgeous book was originally created by Fanny Robinson, who lived a quiet English country life in the last half of the 19th century. The rich, creamy paper provides a perfect backdrop for Robinson's drawings, and for those who have difficulty reading ornate penmanship, her fanciful poetry is copied onto each painting's facing page in an easily readable typeface. Most flowers tend toward the fragrantly romantic--scented geraniums, violets, pansies, and rosebuds of all types appear frequently--and researcher Gill Saunders provides fascinating comments on the historical language of flowers, providing a contextual framework to Robinson's poetry and pictures. One print shows a flowing nosegay of pansies, fuchsia, yew, and Canterbury bells, with this accompanying poem: "I have here only a nosegay of culled / flowers and have brought nothing / of my own, but the string that ties them." When we learn that pansies were sent to loved ones as a token of remembrance, and that yew was "an emblem of sadness and sorrow," readers are given a clear view not just of exquisite art but of the emotions that gave rise to that particular painting. There are plenty of happier pages as well--seasonal celebrations, love poems, memories of childhood--that gardeners, historians, poets, and artists will love. You'll want to send a thank-you bouquet to this talented woman for the generous gift of her closing poem: "The fruits I have gathered of memory / the ripened harvest of my musings / these I give unto thee." --Jill Lightner
Book Description
Hailed by the press as a publishing phenomenon, The Country Flowers of a Victorian Lady is a classic work that will "change the way we look at flowers forever" (Mail on Sunday, London).
Over the past 150 years Fanny Robinson's "Book of Memory," as she called it, has been enjoyed as a treasured heirloom by her family. Now, for the first time, her beautiful work -- arguably the most exquisite collection of Victorian flower paintings in existence -- can be appreciated by all.
Fanny's exceptional book combines elegant watercolors with evocative poetry that is finely illuminated in the manner of a medieval Book of Hours. Using the symbolic Language of Flowers, she invests each flower grouping with subtle and often highly romantic meanings -- indeed, it is thought that the volume was intended as a lasting tribute to a lost lover.
In her fascinating commentary on the paintings, Gill Saunders, a senior curator in the Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, explains the intriguing floral symbolism and takes the reader on a delightful journey into Fanny Robinson's leisured and cultivated world of flower, pen and brush.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent in Beauty and Historical Value.......2002-03-29
"Country Flowers of a Victorian Lady" is a wonderful book of botanical watercolors made as a personal album by Fanny Robinson in the latter half of the 1800's. Watercolor painting at that time was considered an acceptable and edifying pastime for women both young and old, and this grouping of flower portraits is superb. The comentaries on the facing pages offer quality insight into the hidden meanings of the flower groupings and educated speculation on the unknown aspects surrounding each picture.
I highly recommend this book for flower lovers, watercolor painting enthusiasts, and students of victorian culture. I participate in historic role acting, and this is one book I will request be added to the library of training materials for the program.
Mixed Emotions~.......2000-04-10
"Exqusite" is one of the many words I could use to describe this book. The most beautiful collection of Victorian watercolors one will ever see. The images were taken directly from an album that was created by Fanny Robinson (1802-1872) entitled "The Book of Memory". The author wove a mystery throughout her album. Each gorgeous watercolor is accompanied by a handwritten poem, which leaves the reader musing as to whom, or what, the verses were written. Was it a lost love...? a faded youth....?
She added a phrase on the front of her "Book of Memory" that is so very true "O, like a book of sport thou'lt read me o're ! but theres more in me than thou'lt understand". The Language of Flowers has never been more beautifully...or dramatically, illustrated. I will treasure this book, and a copy for my daughter is inevitible. I wish I could rate it more than five stars...
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Educating the Proper Woman Reader: Victorian Family Literary Magazines & Cultural Health of the Nation
Jennifer Phegley
Manufacturer: Ohio State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 081420967X |
Books:
- Little Pea
- Living Color: Master Lin Yuns Guide to Feng Shui and the Art of Color
- Living In Paris (New Edition) (Living In...)
- Living in the Heart: How to Enter into the Sacred Space Within the Heart
- Living Large in Small Spaces: Expressing Personal Style in 100 to 1,000 Square Feet
- Living Large in Small Spaces: Expressing Personal Style in 100 to 1,000 Square Feet
- Living with Art w/ Timeline
- Make It with Style: Window Shades: Creating Roman, Balloon, and Austrian Shades (Make It with Style)
- Mary Emmerling's American Country Classics: The New American Country Look
- Materials and Components of Interior Architecture (6th Edition)
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