Early environmental anxieties revealed in new book

September 12, 2011

Early environmental anxieties revealed in new book

Dr James Beattie: Author of Empire and Environmental Anxiety

Revelations about the environmental anxieties imperialism created are unearthed in a new book by University of Waikato historian Dr James Beattie.

In Empire and Environmental Anxiety: Health, Science, Art and Conservation in South Asia and Australasia, 1800-1920, published by Palgrave Macmillan (2011), Dr Beattie provides a new analysis of imperialism and environmental change.

The book reinterprets history by unearthing early concerns about human-induced climate change, soil erosion, and a looming timber famine, also revealing colonial fears about the power of environments – and environmental change – to affect health.

“Climate change and conservation are not new concepts – in fact during the 19th and early 20th centuries, conservation represented a form of imperial control designed to generate revenue and to enable the more efficient exploitation of resources,” says Dr Beattie.

“The environmental anxiety this created tied parts of South Asia and Australasia together, through the exchange of policies, people, plants and ideas.”

Empire and Environmental Anxiety will be launched at the November conference of the New Zealand Historical Association being held at the University of Waikato, 16-18 November 2011.

Dr Beattie has published nearly 40 articles and chapters on Asian and Australasian environmental history, garden history, medical history, history of science and Asian art collecting, and sits on the editorial panels of several international journals, including Environment and History and New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies. He is a Senior Lecturer in the History Programme at the university’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

ENDS

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