Environmental History of Modern Migrations

There is a growing interest--even fear--regarding the migrations and the environment nexus. In the age of climate change, the possibility that dramatic environmental transformations might cause the dislocation of millions of people has become not only a matter for scientific speculations or science-fiction narratives, but the object of strategic plans and military analysis.

This book offers a worldwide perspective on the environmental history of migrations in the modern age (19th and 20th century). People have shaped the land where they have settled, and this is true not only for the age of the geographical discoveries or for the boundless areas of new settlements. The urban space has also been affected by the waves of immigration, and the industrial landscape of risk and exposure has been shaped by immigrants' location in the capitalistic treadmill of production. This collection is not a frontier tale of bold pioneers taming the wilderness; instead, a more humble story about the mutual blending of people and the environment, made of adjustments, failures, conflicts, and hybridity. This book offers an opportunity to reflect on the global ecological transformations occurring in the last few centuries. Focussing on the environment/migration nexus, it allows readers to understand that global environmental changes are not distinct from the global social transformations.

This unique book is of great interest to those researching and studying environmental history and migration studies.

Richard Tucker is Professor Emeritus in the History Department at Oakland University and currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Marco Armiero is Director of the Environmental Humanities Lab at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. ?