4 min readOct 27, 2025 04:36 PM IST
First published on: Oct 23, 2025 at 02:16 PM IST
Historian Sunil Amrith has been named the winner of the 2025 British Academy Book Prize for The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years, a panoramic account of how human ambition has transformed the planet, and how the planet, in turn, has shaped human history.
The judges called it “magisterial” and “beautifully written.” Chair Rebecca Earle described it as “important reading for anyone seeking to understand the origins of today’s climate crisis.” The panel agreed that The Burning Earth “exemplifies the spirit of the prize: to deepen understanding of our world.”
Amrith has become the 13th winner of the British Academy’s non-fiction book prize that has been awarded annually since 2013. It recognises work that “searches for truth and reason in difficult places, and shines a light on the connections and divisions that shape cultural identity worldwide.”
Rewriting the story of civilization
“The Burning Earth” explores how centuries of environmental change have propelled human migration.
Amrith’s book spans continents and centuries. From Portuguese silver mines in Peru to British gold fields in South Africa, from colonial railways to oil pipelines in Central Asia, it traces how extraction and empire forged the modern world.
His central claim is that you cannot separate human history from the history of the Earth. Environmental transformation has always been political, driven by the forces of power, profit, inequality, which define our societies. He describes the destruction of landscapes and livelihoods with empathy, revealing how the pursuit of progress reshaped both people and planet.
From Singapore to Yale
Raised in Singapore and educated at Cambridge, Amrith now holds the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professorship of History and teaches in the School of the Environment at Yale University.
Before The Burning Earth, he was best known for Crossing the Bay of Bengal and Unruly Waters, acclaimed studies of migration, empire, and the monsoon. Those works explored how oceans and people have long been intertwined; his latest expands that idea to the entire planet.
Over his career, Amrith has been recognised with top honours such as the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, the 2024 Fukuoka Academic Prize, and the 2025 Toynbee Prize.
The past as mirror and warning
“There is no issue more pressing, more urgent, and more complicated than the climate crisis,” he said. “I hope historical perspectives will help us understand how we got to this place — and how we can untangle the knot we find ourselves in.”
He challenges readers to see the connections between environmental change and human conflict. Wars, he argues, are not only fought over territory but also over resources such as forests, oil, water, and labor. “War and violence,” he says, “are at the very heart of the environmental crisis.”
Nonfiction With a Pulse
For Amrith, nonfiction can appeal to the heart as much as to the head. “It brings the whole breadth of human experience to readers as they grapple with what it means to be human — and how we should live in the world today,” he says.
At 47, Sunil Amrith stands among a generation of historians whose work bridges archives and activism. In honouring him, the British Academy Book Prize acknowledges that to know where we are going, we must first reckon with the ground beneath us.
Sunil Amrith, historian and winner of the 2025 British Academy Book Prize, examines the deep ties between human history and the natural world.
(Photo by Mara Lavitt, courtesy of Yale University) 
“The Burning Earth” explores how centuries of environmental change have propelled human migration.
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