Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare

Nonfiction, History, British, Military
Cover of the book Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare by James L. Hevia, University of Chicago Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: James L. Hevia ISBN: 9780226562315
Publisher: University of Chicago Press Publication: August 23, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press Language: English
Author: James L. Hevia
ISBN: 9780226562315
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication: August 23, 2018
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Language: English

Until well into the twentieth century, pack animals were the primary mode of transport for supplying armies in the field. The British Indian Army was no exception. In the late nineteenth century, for example, it forcibly pressed into service thousands of camels of the Indus River basin to move supplies into and out of contested areas—a system that wreaked havoc on the delicately balanced multispecies environment of humans, animals, plants, and microbes living in this region of Northwest India.
 
In Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare, James Hevia examines the use of camels, mules, and donkeys in colonial campaigns of conquest and pacification, starting with the Second Afghan War—during which an astonishing 50,000 to 60,000 camels perished—and ending in the early twentieth century. Hevia explains how during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a new set of human-animal relations were created as European powers and the United States expanded their colonial possessions and attempted to put both local economies and ecologies in the service of resource extraction. The results were devastating to animals and human communities alike, disrupting centuries-old ecological and economic relationships. And those effects were lasting: Hevia shows how a number of the key issues faced by the postcolonial nation-state of Pakistan—such as shortages of clean water for agriculture, humans, and animals, and limited resources for dealing with infectious diseases—can be directly traced to decisions made in the colonial past. An innovative study of an underexplored historical moment, Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare opens up the animal studies to non-Western contexts and provides an empirically rich contribution to the emerging field of multispecies historical ecology.
 

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

Until well into the twentieth century, pack animals were the primary mode of transport for supplying armies in the field. The British Indian Army was no exception. In the late nineteenth century, for example, it forcibly pressed into service thousands of camels of the Indus River basin to move supplies into and out of contested areas—a system that wreaked havoc on the delicately balanced multispecies environment of humans, animals, plants, and microbes living in this region of Northwest India.
 
In Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare, James Hevia examines the use of camels, mules, and donkeys in colonial campaigns of conquest and pacification, starting with the Second Afghan War—during which an astonishing 50,000 to 60,000 camels perished—and ending in the early twentieth century. Hevia explains how during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries a new set of human-animal relations were created as European powers and the United States expanded their colonial possessions and attempted to put both local economies and ecologies in the service of resource extraction. The results were devastating to animals and human communities alike, disrupting centuries-old ecological and economic relationships. And those effects were lasting: Hevia shows how a number of the key issues faced by the postcolonial nation-state of Pakistan—such as shortages of clean water for agriculture, humans, and animals, and limited resources for dealing with infectious diseases—can be directly traced to decisions made in the colonial past. An innovative study of an underexplored historical moment, Animal Labor and Colonial Warfare opens up the animal studies to non-Western contexts and provides an empirically rich contribution to the emerging field of multispecies historical ecology.
 

More books from University of Chicago Press

Cover of the book Dispatches from Dystopia by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book The Risk of Economic Crisis by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Going Public by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book The Book of Eggs by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Collective Memory and the Historical Past by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Tennis Science by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book The Supreme Court Review, 2015 by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book God by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Friedrich Dürrenmatt by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Guitar Makers by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Atlas, or the Anxious Gay Science by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Planet of Microbes by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Antony Gormley on Sculpture by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book A Genealogy of Terror in Eighteenth-Century France by James L. Hevia
Cover of the book Pasolini Requiem by James L. Hevia
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