Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World

Rating:
Summary: Book of the decade
Review: An extraordinary exercise in erudition. The breadth of Davis's scholarship to put this picture together is amazing. From his synthesis of meteorological science, historical geography and history over five continents Davis prosecutes the case of mass murder against the British ruling class. The callousness of the British rulers of India, (& the racism which underpinned it) extracting their surplus to keep themselves supreme in world finance which sentenced 10s of millions to death from famine and its aftermath are horrifying. British rule in India and the great powers' intervention in China, Davis argues are the origins of third world underdevelopment and mass poverty.
Davis's account is overwhelmingly convincing but the real sting is the similarity of the behaviour he depicts to the ruthlessness of the G8 and their determination to impose their "free trade" on the rest of the world through the WTO. Today's great powers care no more about mass starvation, death from disease and institutionalised poverty resulting from their detemrination to dominate world trade than the Bristish in India. And they will raise the same arguments about the poor's lack of initiative and self reliance and the demoralising effect of welfare as the British in India. Read this book and know how the future will unfold if we do not resist it.

Rating:
Summary: The Supposed Political Economy of Famine
Review: Davis has created a book of monumental proportions, but in doing so he has put too much into the mix and tried to leaven it to one thing -- economic imperialism causes famine.

The sheer horror he describes is enough to make one shed tears in the opening chapters. The hardship of the Indian peasants and their harsh colonial overseers is shocking to imagine -- even by the standards of the mid 1800s.

The central events Davis analyses are the major famines in India, China and Brazil in the 19th Century. With a major digression on the historicism of climatology and the advent of our understanding of major El Nino and Nina climatological events, Davis concludes that Environment exacerbated the climate, but that want was induced by the colonial systems, not climate by itself. Colonialism induced the following:

1)widespread elimination of traditional modes of production. More village based and parochial gave way to more industrial, wage labour modes of production.
2) a profound belief in Adam Smithian Economics and JSMill's notion of non-interventionism, which resulted in benign neglect or actions that actually exacerbated the famine.
3) capitalism means that famine is actually not the lack of food. But the lack of the means of trade, the means of production to produce something in exchange for food.

Ergo Capitalism in general and Imperialism in particular cause Famine.

Davis has an excellent climatological history segment in the middle of the book. I really do not see how it is at all relevant to the above thesis. Besides being an interesting dialogue, if capitalism causes famine then why include a long climatoligical history at all.

For Davis, as with all Marxists (and all idealogues for that matter, whether left or right) there is no room here in the explanation of actions for the role of human decision making. Humans only act in the way that economic forces shape them. It is of course the old charge against Marxism, of determinism writ large, and Davis suffers from this very much. Thus the Queen's Minister's in India, are responsible for the suffering (plausible), and her ministers make decisions purely out of economic motives. Even when they are moved to pity, economics overrides it and brings them back to being automotons driven by economics -- forced to do evil and strip the last amount of surplus value out of the Indian "riots" -- peasants. Thus all colonial officials and their local lackies are inescapable robots.

The corrollary is of course that the local, traditional means of production were superior (the noble savage theory once again), but they were displaced by the newer modes of production, eg. Davis continually cites the fact the train lines and their spurs concentrated grain stores in single huge areas and did not distribute it as widely as the traditional Indian & Chinese methods. It is an interesting theory, but I do not know how he would prove it since his book includes no description of famines in pre-colonial times for any of the countries.

Davis mentions briefly the famines in China in the 1950s / 60s directly instigated by the communist party. Yet, in true ideological style --- throw out common sense and flow with the dogma --- he makes the asinine statement that Mao's policies were driven with good intent, but he lacked a feedback mechanism to know what was actually going on --- millions died, but Mao's heart was in the right place. This, in Davis' opinion, actively contrasts with the attitude of the British who actually engage in active efforts to make the famine worse.

The above is plain idiocy, intellectually dishonest: contrasting the "Great Leap Forward Famine" with that of the British India Famines of 1877 and 1900, Mao created the famine and then mismanaged it. Even by Davis' own analysis, the British did not start such a famine.

Also it is worthwile to note that in 400 pages of contrasting famines Davis does not once -- not once! --- mention the Stalinist famine in 1930s Soviet Union (where as many as 20,000,000 may have died). Such an oversight is done consciously and reminds me that Davis has put together a monumental book with a lot of original work, yet in final analysis it is a heavy ideological tract worthy of Lenin himself. Davis has his truth. It is that capitalism causes famines.

I would caution Mike Davis to merely remember a simple fact. Both capitalists & Communists cause famine. The task is for the individual to respond morally in such times --- to say that actions are only dominated by economic theory is plainly wrong and not worthy of the observations of a well-read historian, which Mike Davis obviously is...







Rating:
Summary: Read this Book, Then...
Review: FIGHT FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Professor Ignacio Chapela courageously spoke out
against the UC $25 million research agreement with
the biotechnology giant Novartis. He published an
article demonstrating that native corn in Mexico had
been contaminated by genetically engineered corn.
Being a prominent critic of the university's ties to
the biotech industry, Dr. Chapela had his tenure
denied despite overwhelming support by his peers at UC
Berkeley and experts around the world.

The implications that these actions have on academic
freedom are frightening. They threaten scientists in
the future from working to seek truth in different
forums without undue influence. Scientists will no
longer be able to ask questions that might seem
uncomfortable even for the university to pose, such as
those in pursuit of precautionary science or in
opposition to corporate control over the university
research agenda.

You can get involved:
1. Call, email or write the UC Berkeley Chancellor
Birgeneau and the Academic Senate.
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Snail Mail: Office of the Chancellor, 200 California
Hall # 1500, Berkeley, California, 94720-1500
(Academic Senate = PHONE: [phone]; FAX:
510-642-8920; E-MAIL: [e-mail]

2. Visit www.tenurejustice.org or write
[e-mail]




Rating:
Summary: Magnificent survey of climate and empire
Review: In this extraordinary book, Davis studies the effects of the 1876-79, 1889-91 and 1896-1902 famines on the southern hemisphere, particularly India, China and Brazil. He estimates that the famines killed perhaps 50 million people in Asia alone. The causes were disruptions - El Ninos - of the global climatic system, which have occurred throughout history. The trend is towards more frequent and more destructive events.

Responding to famines in pre-British India, its Moghul rulers embargoed food exports, regulated prices, distributed food for free, and relaxed tax collection. Similarly in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Chinese state managed effective famine relief and flood control systems. But the British state's occupation of India and its Opium and Arrow wars against China destroyed all these systems.

Britain's rulers took advantage of the disasters to fasten their grip even more tightly on both their formal and informal empires. They used the Indian Famine Fund to pay for their imperial wars. During the famines, they allowed merchants to export grain reserves, ended free food distribution, and maintained, or even increased, tax collection.

Viceroy Curzon said, "any Government which by indiscriminate alms-giving weakened the fibre and demoralised the self-reliance of the population, would be guilty of a public crime." The 1901 Famine Commission Report ludicrously said, "the relief distributed was excessive." The Irish called it 'famine political economy'. But there was no such parsimony in raising a War Fund for the attack on the Boers, nor in the millions spent on Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee ceremonies.

From 1757 to 1947, India's per capita income failed to improve. In the last half of the 19th century, India's income fell by 50%; life expectancy fell by 20% between 1872 and 1921; the population hardly grew. There were 17 serious famines in the 2000 years before British rule, but 31 in the 120 years of British rule. Empire, not Asia's 'immemorial' traditions, or overpopulation, kept India poor. Today, different imperial powers, the USA and the EU, seek to take advantage of the disasters that recent El Ninos have caused.

Rating:
Summary: El Nino and Imperialism: A Tragic Combination
Review: Late Victorian Holocausts is a double investigation, first of the role played by ENSO, the El Nino Southern Oscillation which affects much of the world's weather in the devastating famines which marked the late nineteenth century, and secondly of the role European (primarily British) imperialism took in deepening those famines. Thus part of the book is a scientific study of ENSO, while the rest is a chronicle of the horrendous suffering in India, China, and Brazil. Even if you are familiar with the typical nineteenth century European Social Darwinist free trader ideology, the callousness of the attitudes of British viceroys and plentipotentiaries towards the suffering Indian and Chinese peasants is breathtaking. Similarly, the arrogant disregard of the sufferings of the Brazilians by their government is beyond belief.

In contrast with the insouciance of the Europeans when faced with disaster, Davis provides some fascinating information proving that earlier famines in India and China before imperialism weakened their societies were dealt with swiftly and humanely, with a fine regard for easing suffering and preserving human life.

The most important message of this book is that much of today's Third World is the direct result of natural disaster augmented by human indifference.

Rating:
Summary: For the record
Review: Marxists are routinely (and not surprisingly) confronted with the effects of their acts and theories. Yet the market system is never confronted with the facts of the case, nor are these allowed to impinge with any critique of ideology. Anyone with reveries intact here should read this book, a very well done account of the interaction of global climate (the El Nino phenomenon in action, by hypothesis), colonialism, and imperialism. A sort of Black Book of capitalism. Add fifty million to King Leopold's ten and we are not far short of the Bolshevik world record. The vignettes and detail here are excellent, a gripping tour into archival amnesia.

Rating:
Summary: A staggering indictment of British imperialism
Review: Mike Davis has fired the opening shot of the 21st century: imperialists stand accused of murdering tens of millions. In one magnificent book Davis blasts to pieces the notion that "free trade" existed or will liberate the 3rd World. Far more serious, though, is Davis' charge that imperialists __made__ the 3rd World.

Indeed, Davis documents the extraction of wealth from India, China, Brazil, and Egypt; showing how each was reduced to a mere skeleton, and how even their marrows were sucked dry.

In times of drought, Britain actually _increased_ taxation and food exports from famine stricken India. He then proves that British imperialists were well aware of the famine, and allowed the policies to continue. Worse still, they offered food relief only in exchange for hard labor, at a caloric ratio slightly worse than that of the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald. By British estimates roughly 20 million Indians died, while their colonial masters spouted racist mantras.

In other measures the British merely fostered a devasting blight of globalization, unaware of its cruel consequences. Yet Davis shows that the British mission to "civilize" India curtailed Indian economic growth: Indian incomes were frozen for 300 years, while the British boasted about railroads, telegraphs, and other trinkets of technology ('gifts' which helped the Empire rule and rob India).

The book is weakest in its discussions of China and Brazil. One might be served well by reading just his chapters on India.

Davis' book shatters the currently relentless propaganda about growth, development, and free trade, and raises serious questions for the 21st century. The book is nothing short of a masterpiece, and deserves a suitably large audience.

Rating:
Summary: Winner of 2002 World History Association Book Award!
Review: The Annual Book Award Committee of the World History Association is pleased to announce that Mike Davis' Late Victorian Holocausts has won its 2002 prize, because it synthesizes scientific and historical data into a highly readable, well-documented and well-researched study of the interplay between the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and global political and economic imperialism in the late 19th century. It thus makes a very significant contribution to transregional history in a way that will and should reach a wider audience than academic historians.

Rating:
Summary: El Nino Did it
Review: The author makes a good argument that millions of people from India and China died as a result of uncaring policies developed by the British during El Ninos in the nineteenth century. I would have preferred that the author spend less time on British policies and more time on the nature of El Ninos.

Rating:
Summary: Hard to over rate the importance of this book
Review: There have been droughts and other major agricultural
failures in China, India, and Africa for millennium,
but the accompanying mass starvations and ecological
catastrophes that we tend to associate with these
regions did not start occurring in earnest until
the British Empire imposed its 'free' market discipline
on these societies using the end of the barrel of
a gun as their means of persuasion.

Who shaped the glass through which most of us
unconsciously consider India, China, and Africa?
19th century Brits. Their strategy was simple:
paint them as ignorant, progress-resisting savages,
then rob them blind and, when they starve by the millions,
as they also did in conquered Ireland, tell the
world it can't be helped.

The episodes Davis writes about are in many ways still ongoing
because the pattern of ecological mismanagement and social
disintegration set off by the British in these regions has become the 'modern' norm. We're just one shift in the weather from even larger catastrophes.