The Rise and Fall of the Amazon Rubber Industry: an Historical Anthropology

Abstract

"In this engaging book, Stephen Nugent offers the first in-depth historical anthropology of the most widely recognised feature of the Amazonian region - the dramatic rise and fall of the Amazon rubber industry, Examining rubber in the Amazon from the perspective of a long-term extractive industry that linked remote forest tappers to technical innovations central to the industrial transformation of Europe and North America, the book emphasizes the links between the social landscape of Amazonia and the global economy. It challenges widely held assumptions about the hyper-naturalism of the 'lost world' of the Amazon where 'the challenge of the tropics' is still to be faced and the 'frontiers of development' are still to be settled. Through a critical examination focused around the rubber industry, Nugent addresses myths that continue to influence perceptions of Amazonia. This book should be required reading for all those interested in the Amazon, and will be relevant to scholars of anthropology, political ecology, geography, history of Latin America, the industrial revolution, and development studies."--Provided by publisher