History 4° Celsius

Ian Baucom is Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History and coeditor of Shades of Black: Assembling Black Arts in 1980s Britain, both also published by Duke University Press.

• Acknowledgments  ix1. Of Forces and Forcings  12. History 4° Celsius: Search for a Method  353. The View from the Shore  73Coda. The Youngest Day  110Notes  119Bibliography  131Index  137

“Giving a conceptual and timely empirical account of the Anthropocene and the problem it presents for the scale of history, Ian Baucom combines intellectual provocation with a series of fascinating insights from the sciences all while taking seriously the imaginative and conceptual challenges that the sciences pose to the humanities. History 4° Celsius will be a major book for the humanities in general. I was enthralled reading it.” - Claire Colebrook, author of (Death of the PostHuman: Essays on Extinction, Volume 1) “Empirically grounded, theoretically nimble and nuanced, generous toward those whose ideas he opposes and yet resolute in his opposition, Ian Baucom develops in this book a powerful, self-reflexive, and original approach to questions of methods in the emergent field of Anthropocene humanities. His argument will deeply interest postcolonial critics and other humanists as they ponder and negotiate the planetary environmental crises that so mark our times. An exemplary and thoughtful contribution.” - Dipesh Chakrabarty, author of (The Crises of Civilization: Exploring Global and Planetary Histories) “History 4° Celsius is a complexly argued book that adds to the many interesting humanistic perspectives on the Anthropocene circulating today.” - Sean M. Smith (H-Slavery, H-Net Reviews)