Research Catalog

Crossing the Bay of Bengal : the furies of nature and the fortunes of migrants / Sunil S. Amrith.

Title
Crossing the Bay of Bengal : the furies of nature and the fortunes of migrants / Sunil S. Amrith.
Author
Amrith, Sunil S., 1979-
Publication
  • Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 2013.
  • ©2013

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TextRequest in advance JV8490 .A728 2013Off-site

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Description
353 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm
Summary
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.
Uniform Title
Democracy and urban landscapes.
Subject
  • 1800-talet
  • 1800-1899
  • Asians > History > Bengal, Bay of, Region > 19th century
  • Immigrants > Bengal, Bay of, Region > History > 19th century
  • Asians > Migrations
  • Commerce
  • Immigrants
  • Handel
  • Migration
  • Migration > historia
  • Asiater
  • Invandrare
  • Handel
  • Bengal, Bay of, Region. > History > 19th century
  • Golf von Bengalen
  • Bengalen
  • Indiska oceanen
Genre/Form
  • History
  • Narrative non-fiction.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-338) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Prologue : the Bay of Bengal in history -- The life of the Bay of Bengal -- That vast sea's emporium -- Turbulent journeys, sacred geographies -- Human traffic -- Oceans' crossroads -- Crossings interrupted -- The pursuit of citizenship -- When the waters rise -- Epilogue : crossing the Bay of Bengal.
ISBN
  • 9780674724839
  • 0674724836
  • 067428724X
  • 9780674287242
LCCN
  • 2013010984
  • 40022749145
  • 99955904506
OCLC
  • 837923428
  • SCSB-11784497
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library