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The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century
This clearly written and engrossing book presents a global narrative of the origins of the modern world from 1400 to the present. Unlike most studies, which assume that the “rise of the West” is the story of the coming of the modern world, this history, drawing upon new scholarship on Asia, Africa, and the New World and upon the maturing field of environmental history, constructs a story in which those parts of the world play major roles, including their impacts on the environment. Robert B. Marks defines the modern world as one marked by industry, the nation state, interstate warfare, a large and growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest parts of the world, increasing inequality within the wealthiest industrialized countries, and an escape from the environmental constraints of the “biological old regime.” He explains its origins by emphasizing contingencies (such as the conquest of the New World); the broad comparability of the most advanced regions in China, India, and Europe; the reasons why England was able to escape from common ecological constraints facing all of those regions by the end of the eighteenth century; a conjuncture of human and natural forces that solidified a gap between the industrialized and non-industrialized parts of the world; the mounting environmental crisis that defines the modern world; and the ways in which the forces of globalization stress the economic and political underpinnings of the modern world.
Now in a new edition that brings the saga of the modern world to the present in an environmental context, the book considers how and why the United States emerged as a world power in the twentieth century and became the sole superpower by the twenty-first century, and why the changed relationship of humans to the environmental likely will be the hallmark of the modern era—the Anthropocene. Once again arguing that the US rise to global hegemon was contingent, not inevitable, Marks also points to the resurgence of Asia and the vastly changed relationship of humans to the environment that may in the long run overshadow any political and economic milestones of the past hundred years.
1120879000
The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century
This clearly written and engrossing book presents a global narrative of the origins of the modern world from 1400 to the present. Unlike most studies, which assume that the “rise of the West” is the story of the coming of the modern world, this history, drawing upon new scholarship on Asia, Africa, and the New World and upon the maturing field of environmental history, constructs a story in which those parts of the world play major roles, including their impacts on the environment. Robert B. Marks defines the modern world as one marked by industry, the nation state, interstate warfare, a large and growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest parts of the world, increasing inequality within the wealthiest industrialized countries, and an escape from the environmental constraints of the “biological old regime.” He explains its origins by emphasizing contingencies (such as the conquest of the New World); the broad comparability of the most advanced regions in China, India, and Europe; the reasons why England was able to escape from common ecological constraints facing all of those regions by the end of the eighteenth century; a conjuncture of human and natural forces that solidified a gap between the industrialized and non-industrialized parts of the world; the mounting environmental crisis that defines the modern world; and the ways in which the forces of globalization stress the economic and political underpinnings of the modern world.
Now in a new edition that brings the saga of the modern world to the present in an environmental context, the book considers how and why the United States emerged as a world power in the twentieth century and became the sole superpower by the twenty-first century, and why the changed relationship of humans to the environmental likely will be the hallmark of the modern era—the Anthropocene. Once again arguing that the US rise to global hegemon was contingent, not inevitable, Marks also points to the resurgence of Asia and the vastly changed relationship of humans to the environment that may in the long run overshadow any political and economic milestones of the past hundred years.
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The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Environmental Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century
This clearly written and engrossing book presents a global narrative of the origins of the modern world from 1400 to the present. Unlike most studies, which assume that the “rise of the West” is the story of the coming of the modern world, this history, drawing upon new scholarship on Asia, Africa, and the New World and upon the maturing field of environmental history, constructs a story in which those parts of the world play major roles, including their impacts on the environment. Robert B. Marks defines the modern world as one marked by industry, the nation state, interstate warfare, a large and growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest parts of the world, increasing inequality within the wealthiest industrialized countries, and an escape from the environmental constraints of the “biological old regime.” He explains its origins by emphasizing contingencies (such as the conquest of the New World); the broad comparability of the most advanced regions in China, India, and Europe; the reasons why England was able to escape from common ecological constraints facing all of those regions by the end of the eighteenth century; a conjuncture of human and natural forces that solidified a gap between the industrialized and non-industrialized parts of the world; the mounting environmental crisis that defines the modern world; and the ways in which the forces of globalization stress the economic and political underpinnings of the modern world.
Now in a new edition that brings the saga of the modern world to the present in an environmental context, the book considers how and why the United States emerged as a world power in the twentieth century and became the sole superpower by the twenty-first century, and why the changed relationship of humans to the environmental likely will be the hallmark of the modern era—the Anthropocene. Once again arguing that the US rise to global hegemon was contingent, not inevitable, Marks also points to the resurgence of Asia and the vastly changed relationship of humans to the environment that may in the long run overshadow any political and economic milestones of the past hundred years.
Robert B. Marks was Richard and Billie Deihl Professor of History at Whittier College and the author of China: Its Environment and History (R&L 2012) and Tigers, Rice, Silk, and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial China (CUP 1998). He is the recipient of Whittier College’s Harry W. Nerhood Teaching Excellence Award.
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Maps Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction: The Rise of the West? The Rise of the West Eurocentrism Stories and Historical Narratives The Elements of an Environmentally Grounded Non-Eurocentric Narrative Chapter One: The Material and Trading Worlds, circa 1400 The Biological Old Regime The World and Its Trading System circa 1400 The Black Death: A Mid-Fourteenth-Century Conjuncture Conclusion: The Biological Old Regime Chapter Two: Starting with China China India and the Indian Ocean Dar al-Islam, “The Abode of Islam” Africa Europe and the Gunpowder Epic Conclusion Chapter Three: Empires, States, and the New World, 1500–1775 Empire Builders and Conquerors The Conquest of the Americas and the Spanish Empire The New World Economy Human Migration and the Early Modern World The Global Crisis of the Seventeenth Century and the European State System Chapter Four: The Industrial Revolution and Its Consequences, 1750–1850 Cotton Textiles New Sources of Energy and Power Coal, Iron, and Steam Tea, Silver, Opium, Iron, and Steam Conclusion: Into the Anthropocene Chapter Five: The Gap Opium and Global Capitalism Industrialization Elsewhere New Dynamics in the Industrial World Nations and Nationalism The Scrambles for Africa and China El Niño Famines and the Making of the Third World Social Darwinism and Self-Congratulatory Eurocentrism Conclusion Chapter Six: The Great Departure Introduction to the Twentieth Century and Beyond Part I: Nitrogen, Wars, and the First Deglobalization, 1900–1945 Part II: The Post–World War II and Cold War Worlds, 1945–91 Part III: Globalization and Its Opponents, 1991–Present Part IV: The Great Departure: Into the Anthropocene Conclusion Conclusion: Changes, Continuities, and the Shape of the Future The Story Summarized Globalization Into the Future Notes Index About the Author
