5x15 is delighted to announce a special online event with two award-winning authors, the acclaimed Yale professor Sunil Amrith, and John Vaillant, author of Fire Weather, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction in 2023. They will be in conversation about Amrith's new book The Burning Earth, a paradigm-shifting survey of how human history has reshaped the planet over the last 500 years.
Humans have always searched for freedom. Ever since innovations in agriculture vastly expanded production of the staples of food energy, our remarkable achievements in reshaping nature have brought about an overwhelming expansion in the life chances of billions of people.
Yet every technological innovation has also empowered humans to exploit each other and the planet with fierce brutality, making the history of the environment inextricably linked to the histories of Empire, genocide, eco-cide and war.
As the threat of climate change becomes ever clearer, join us for an important conversation with two of the leading authors in this field. They will discuss how we have got to where we are now, and what we must do to be better citizens of the planet in the future.
Praise for The Burning Earth
'The Burning Earth is a marvelously erudite and wide-ranging account of the steadily accelerating ecological transformation of the planet since the twelfth century. An indispensable contribution to both environmental and global history.’- AMITAV GHOSH
'The Burning Earth, which is nothing short of a history of the world, is as beautiful as it is indispensable, as breathtaking as it is devastating. It answers questions most of us have been too daft even to ask. It will set you on fire.'- JILL LEPORE
Sunil Amrith is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History and professor in the School of the Environment at Yale University. He is the author of four books, and a recipient of multiple awards including a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship and the 2024 Fukuoka Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of Asian studies. He grew up in Singapore and lives in Connecticut.
John Vaillant is the international bestselling author of The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival and The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed. He has written for, among others, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic and the Guardian. His latest book, Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World, is a page-turning account of a brutal urban wildfire, and a sweeping exploration of our rapidly changing relationship with fire on Earth. It won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2023 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
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