Indian-origin historian Sunil Amrith has been awarded the prestigious 2025 British Academy Book Prize for his groundbreaking work The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years. The £25,000 award honours outstanding non-fiction that advances global understanding in the humanities and social sciences.
A Global Historian with Indian Roots
Born in Kenya to South Indian parents and raised in Singapore, Sunil Amrith, 46, is currently Professor of History at Yale University. A graduate of the University of Cambridge, Amrith has long explored themes of migration, empire, and climate change. The Burning Earth examines five centuries of environmental transformation, showing how colonisation, industrialisation, and human ambition have reshaped ecosystems worldwide.
About The Burning Earth
Spanning from the conquest of the Americas to the World Wars, the book links global events through their shared ecological impact. The British Academy praised Amrith’s work for its “extraordinary synthesis of environmental and human history,” reframing the story of human progress as one intertwined with environmental exploitation and resilience.
Related GK Facts
- The British Academy Book Prize, established in 2013, celebrates excellence in non-fiction writing.
- Sunil Amrith previously received the MacArthur Fellowship (“Genius Grant”) in 2017.
- The Burning Earth traces 500 years of environmental change through the lens of empire, economy, and ecology.
- The 2025 shortlist included William Dalrymple, Lucy Ash, Bronwen Everill, Sophie Harman, and Graeme Lawson.
Celebrating Global Scholarship
The British Academy described the 2025 shortlist as a “celebration of scholarship that bridges past and present,” highlighting works that expand public understanding of global interdependence. Amrith’s win underscores the growing recognition of environmental history as essential to understanding humanity’s shared future.
