The States of the Earth

<b>"An extraordinary book. Mohamed Amer Meziane's breathtaking analysis of the making of fossil states opens to a new genre of history writing where the very layers of earth's riches are at its center."<br>—Ann Laura Stoler, author of <i>Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power, Along the Archival Grain</i><br><br>How the disenchantment of empire led to climate change<br></b><br>While industrial states competed to colonize Asia and Africa in the nineteenth century, conversion to Christianity was replaced by a civilizing mission. This new secular impetus strode hand in hand with racial capitalism in the age of empires: a terrestrial paradise was to be achieved through accumulation and the ravaging of nature.<br><br>Far from a defence of religion, <i>The States of the Earth</i> argues that phenomena such as evangelism and political Islam are best understood as products of empire and secularization. In a world where material technology was considered divine, religious and secular forces both tried to achieve Heaven on Earth by destroying Earth itself.