The Burning Earth: A History

"First, don’t be put off by the title. The Burning Earth is a bracing book, rather than a depressing one. Although it’s a history of the terrible things human beings have done to the planet, to each other and to an unfathomable number of innocent creatures, Sunil Amrith’s chronicle is as compassionate as it is riveting. A Yale professor and the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, the author moves seamlessly from how global conquest and war reshaped Earth from 1218 onward, to fascinating cultural analysis, such as a look at the artistry of Charlie Chaplin, Akira Kurosawa and Diego Rivera through an environmental lens, to a resolute call for integrating our own vulnerable “creatureliness” into a road toward repair."