Winner of the British Academy Book Prize 2025

Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction 2025

One of the Observer's 25 Best Books of the Century

‘Dazzling… brilliant… exactly the kind of history that we need on our crisis-ridden planet’ - Tom Simpson, TLS

In this paradigm-shifting global history of how humanity has reshaped the planet, and the planet has shaped human history, Sunil Amrith pairs the stories of environment and Empire, of genocide and eco-cide, of the expansion of human freedom and its costs. Drawing on an extraordinarily rich diversity of primary sources, he examines the ruins of Spanish silver mining in Peru, British gold mining in South Africa, and oil extraction in Central Asia.

He explores the railways and highways that brought humans to new terrains of conflict against each other and against nature. Amrith’s account of how the First and Second World Wars involved the massive mobilization not only of men, but of other natural resources from around the globe, provides an essential new way of understanding war as an irreversible reshaping of the planet. He also reveals the reality of migration as a consequence of environmental harm.

The imperial, globe-spanning pursuit of profit, combined with new forms of energy and new possibilities of freedom from hunger and discomfort, freedom to move and explore, has brought change to every inch of Earth. Amrith tells, on the broadest scale, a mind-altering epic – vibrant with stories, characters, and vivid images – in which humanity might find the collective wisdom to save itself.

Pages: 432, Dimensions: 12.8x12.8cm