{"product_id":"cyclonic-lives-in-an-indian-robert-m-rouphail-9780821426777","title":"Cyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World: Environment, Disaster, and Identity in Modern Mauritius","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDisasters as historical processes shaping identity, governance, and diasporic memory in colonial and postcolonial Mauritius\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn a world marked by increasingly destructive ecological and meteorological upheavals, \u003ci\u003eCyclonic Lives in an Indian Ocean World\u003c\/i\u003e offers a historical analysis of how these catastrophes shape people's understanding of themselves, their collective history, and their relationship to the institutions that govern them. An examination of cyclonic disasters in the multiethnic Indian Ocean island of Mauritius throws into stark relief how deep histories of diasporic identity formation, of imperial governance, and of the informal practices of racial difference making graft onto how everyday people interpret these moments of loss and the futures that emerge in their wake.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eCyclonic Lives\u003c\/i\u003e shows that disasters are not only events; they are also processes through which people evaluate and rethink the most elemental social and cultural categories that give meaning to their lives. Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing until the early postcolonial era, this book tracks, for example, how Mauritians of African descent integrated these disasters into broader collective histories and memories of the Indian Ocean slave trade, how Hindu Indo-Mauritians understood cyclones' ecological effects as material elements to be accounted for in a broader Hindu diasporic space, and how the late colonial and early postcolonial state built infrastructures--material, conceptual, and financial--to mitigate the threats posed by these storms and ensure their own long-term durability.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe increasing political, social, and economic instability that climate change has already triggered demands that humanists develop analytical geographies and methodologies that shed light on how power can modulate in asymmetrical ways at moments of crisis. If there is one central takeaway from this historical study of this small island in a big ocean, it is that catastrophic events are not things that merely happen to people; they are processes that remake them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert M. Rouphail\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 082142677X\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780821426777\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Ohio University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/05\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.20w x 0.90d","brand":"Robert M. Rouphail","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48520118141183,"sku":"9780821426777","price":90.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8e20501f-bb17-4f7e-9ecc-b9932a833774.jpg?v=1778740853","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/cyclonic-lives-in-an-indian-robert-m-rouphail-9780821426777","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}