Victims of Progress

By John H. Bodley

Book Overview

A newer edition of this book is available at the following web address: https: //rowman.com/ISBN/9781442226937

Victims of Progress provides a global overview of the struggle between small-scale indigenous societies and the colonists and corporate developers that invaded their territories over the past 200 years to extract resources. It shows how these small-scale societies have survived by organizing politically to defend their basic human rights, and shows that they are now being impacted by oil and natural gas development and tropical deforestation, as well as global warming. This compelling account of the effects of technology and development on indigenous peoples throughout the world examines major issues of intervention: social engineering, economic development, self-determination, health and disease, and ecocide. Victims of Progress provides a provocative context in which to think about civilization and its costs. In this new fifth edition, Bodley provides extensive new discussions on the increased political power of the Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic, the role of indigenous people in the Arctic Council, shifts in Aboriginal rights in Australia, and many new developments on the impact of global warming on indigenous populations around the world.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0759111480
• ISBN13: 9780759111486
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: AltaMira Press
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 1.1" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Crisp, Clear, Insightful, and Vitally Important

This book is the most clear and insightful analysis of the global interactions between large industrial civilizations and small indigenous communities I've yet seen. There is no fuzzy logic or impotent liberal hand-wringing here, just solid information and analysis by a competent scholar in the field of Anthropology. Excellent overview of our global situation, very clear analysis of the processes of history, and fine perspective on contemporary issues. I would consider this book a must read for any serious student of indigenous peoples, the history of frontier encounters or modern geopolitics as it relates to indigenous peoples. As a person who picked up degrees in History and International Studies before venturing into the field of Anthropology and encountering this book, I would say that Bodley cuts through the ideological orientation an imprecise analysis one tends to see in the writings of historians and political scientists on this subject, and gives the reader a solid understanding of one of the largest and most sweeping trends in history.

Other Worlds

This book is amazing in what it achieves - a thorough, comprehensive view of expansive, global civilization and its affects on local, indigenous, autonomous peoples around the world. Bodley clearly and succinctly summaries the last two and a half centuries of colonial and imperial expansion, the people who resisted and continue to resist that expansion, and the negative consequences of being incorporated (usually by force) into large, impersonal, irresponsible nation-states. A must read for anyone who wishes to step outside our consumer-frenzied, totalitarian culture of domination and see what other worlds were and are possible.