The Climate of History in a Planetary AgeFor the past decade, historian Dipesh Chakrabarty has been one of the most influential scholars addressing the meaning of climate change. Climate change, he argues, upends long-standing ideas of history, modernity, and globalization. The burden of The Climate of History in a Planetary Age is to grapple with what this means and to confront humanities scholars with ideas they have been reluctant to reconsider—from the changed nature of human agency to a new acceptance of universals. Chakrabarty argues that we must see ourselves from two perspectives at once: the planetary and the global. This distinction is central to Chakrabarty’s work—the globe is a human-centric construction, while a planetary perspective intentionally decenters the human. Featuring wide-ranging excursions into historical and philosophical literatures, The Climate of History in a Planetary Age boldly considers how to frame the human condition in troubled times. As we open ourselves to the implications of the Anthropocene, few writers are as likely as Chakrabarty to shape our understanding of the best way forward. |
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animals Anthro Anthropo Anthropocene Arendt atmosphere biological biophilia biosphere Broecker Bruno Latour called Cambridge capitalism capitalist carbon carbon cycle Carl Schmitt century chapter Chicago Press climate crisis Clive Hamilton concept consciousness critical critique Crutzen Culture Dalit Dalit body David Archer deep history Delhi discussion dominant Earth System Science Earth system scientists economic environment environmental epoch essay ethical European everyday existence experience extinction fossil fuels future Gaia geoengineering geological geologist global warming globe Hannah Arendt Heidegger historians Holocene human history humanist idea impact India IPCC James Hansen Jan Zalasiewicz John Bellamy Foster Kant Langmuir and Broecker Lenton lives modern moral nations nature Nehru nonhuman planet planetary political postcolonial problem processes question Rabindranath Tagore relationship scale Schmitt sense social species story Tagore technosphere thought thropocene tion trans University of Chicago Vemula word world history writes York