Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World in the Age of Revolution

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Caribbean & West Indian, Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Science, Other Sciences, Meteorology, History, Americas, Latin America
Cover of the book Climate and Catastrophe in Cuba and the Atlantic World in the Age of Revolution by Sherry Johnson, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sherry Johnson ISBN: 9780807869345
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: November 14, 2011
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Sherry Johnson
ISBN: 9780807869345
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: November 14, 2011
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

From 1750 to 1800, a critical period that saw the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution, the Atlantic world experienced a series of environmental crises, including more frequent and severe hurricanes and extended drought. Drawing on historical climatology, environmental history, and Cuban and American colonial history, Sherry Johnson innovatively integrates the region's experience with extreme weather events and patterns into the history of the Spanish Caribbean and the Atlantic world.

By superimposing this history of natural disasters over the conventional timeline of sociopolitical and economic events in Caribbean colonial history, Johnson presents an alternative analysis in which some of the signal events of the Age of Revolution are seen as consequences of ecological crisis and of the resulting measures for disaster relief. For example, Johnson finds that the general adoption in 1778 of free trade in the Americas was catalyzed by recognition of the harsh realities of food scarcity and the needs of local colonists reeling from a series of natural disasters. Weather-induced environmental crises and slow responses from imperial authorities, Johnson argues, played an inextricable and, until now, largely unacknowledged role in the rise of revolutionary sentiments in the eighteenth-century Caribbean.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

From 1750 to 1800, a critical period that saw the American Revolution, French Revolution, and Haitian Revolution, the Atlantic world experienced a series of environmental crises, including more frequent and severe hurricanes and extended drought. Drawing on historical climatology, environmental history, and Cuban and American colonial history, Sherry Johnson innovatively integrates the region's experience with extreme weather events and patterns into the history of the Spanish Caribbean and the Atlantic world.

By superimposing this history of natural disasters over the conventional timeline of sociopolitical and economic events in Caribbean colonial history, Johnson presents an alternative analysis in which some of the signal events of the Age of Revolution are seen as consequences of ecological crisis and of the resulting measures for disaster relief. For example, Johnson finds that the general adoption in 1778 of free trade in the Americas was catalyzed by recognition of the harsh realities of food scarcity and the needs of local colonists reeling from a series of natural disasters. Weather-induced environmental crises and slow responses from imperial authorities, Johnson argues, played an inextricable and, until now, largely unacknowledged role in the rise of revolutionary sentiments in the eighteenth-century Caribbean.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book Raising the White Flag by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Hidden Spending by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Never Just a Game by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Gendered Spaces by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book On Strike and on Film by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Home Fires Burning by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book The Cold War at Home by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Reconstructing the Household by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Surrogate Suburbs by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book The Latino Migration Experience in North Carolina by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book What Would Jesus Read? by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Hard Work Is Not Enough by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book The Black Bard of North Carolina by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Carolina del Norte: Geographies of Latinization in the South by Sherry Johnson
Cover of the book Invalid Women by Sherry Johnson
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy