Said@Duke: History Professor J.R. McNeill on the Environmental Impacts of the Industrial Revolution

Georgetown University history professor J.R. McNeill spoke last week at Duke about global environmental history and the Industrial Revolution.

He discussed the environmental consequences of industrialization for landscapes and seascapes around the world. Factory-scale production required mounting quantities of ores, fibers, lubricants and other ingredients of industrialization, much of which came from South America, Southeast Asia, East Africa and elsewhere, he noted. Mobilizing these ingredients of industrialization reshuffled ecologies on land and and at sea in complex ways that helped to shape the biosphere in the 21st century and beyond, he said. The talk at Rubenstein Library was organized by Duke's Global Asia Initiative and co-sponsored by Franklin Humanities Institute.

View more from the Said@Duke series.