Book ID: CBB001421571

Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants (2013)

unapi

Amrith, Sunil S. (Author)


Harvard University Press


Publication Date: 2013
Physical Details: 368 pp.; ill.; maps; notes; index
Language: English

The Indian Ocean was global long before the Atlantic, and today the countries bordering the Bay of Bengal---India, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia---are home to one in four people on Earth. Crossing the Bay of Bengal places this region at the heart of world history for the first time. Integrating human and environmental history, and mining a wealth of sources, Sunil Amrith gives a revelatory and stirring new account of the Bay and those who have inhabited it. For centuries the Bay of Bengal served as a maritime highway between India and China, and then as a battleground for European empires, all while being shaped by the monsoons and by human migration. Imperial powers in the nineteenth century, abetted by the force of capital and the power of steam, reconfigured the Bay in their quest for coffee, rice, and rubber. Millions of Indian migrants crossed the sea, bound by debt or spurred by drought, and filled with ambition. Booming port cities like Singapore and Penang became the most culturally diverse societies of their time. By the 1930s, however, economic, political, and environmental pressures began to erode the Bay's centuries-old patterns of interconnection. Today, rising waters leave the Bay of Bengal's shores especially vulnerable to climate change, at the same time that its location makes it central to struggles over Asia's future. Amrith's evocative and compelling narrative of the region's pasts offers insights critical to understanding and confronting the many challenges facing Asia in the decades ahead.

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Reviewed By

Review Beemer, Bryce (2015) Review of "Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants". Environmental History (pp. 521-523). unapi

Review Gommans, Jos (2014) Review of "Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants". Journal of Global History (pp. 497-499). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001421571/

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Authors & Contributors
Elmhirst, Rebecca
Carl Middleton
Suphāng Čhanthawānit
Jeng, Alieu
Swindell, Ken
Cook, Edward R.
Concepts
Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence
Environmental history
Agriculture
Imperialism
Emigration; immigration
Colonialism
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
Ancient
20th century, early
17th century
Places
Europe
Indian Ocean
Southeast Asia
Myanmar (Burma)
Sri Lanka
Malay; Malaysia
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