The Amazon has finally become political news.
Mark Harris, University of Adelaide/University of St Andrews
This outstanding collection shows why.
LAB is excited to announce that on 8 October we will release our latest title in partnership with Practical Action Publishing: The Amazon in Times of War by Marcos Colón. Read on for details about the book and the author’s UK book tour, including a launch event in London on Saturday 19 October.
The Amazon in Times of War is a collection of essays featuring first-hand accounts that detail physical assaults and economic and institutional harm against the ‘lungs of the earth’, the Amazon region.
The essays traverse diverse themes while adhering to a chronological sequence, zeroing in on a pivotal period commencing in 2018 when Jair Bolsonaro assumed the presidency of an already fragmented nation. His calculated political agenda aimed at the obliteration of the world’s largest biome and its peoples, which encompasses nine South American nations. Bolsonaro was consequently dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics.”
In his new book, Marcos Colón denounces this destruction and calls for the protection of the rainforest and its inhabitants.
Blighted by violence since the arrival of the colonizers, the Amazon is crying out for help. Marcos Colón’s book is an urgent call for the action and courage needed to free the forest from plunder and pillage. This is the greatest challenge of our generation.
Cristina Serra, Brazilian journalist and Author of ‘Tragédia em Mariana:
A História do Maior Desastre Ambiental do Brasil’
You can pre-order a copy of the book here. Please get in touch if you represent an institution and you’re interested in buying paperback copies, a multi-user ebook for colleagues/students, or access to the whole LAB collection.
About the author
Marcos Colón is an academic, journalist, and filmmaker. His articles have been featured in the Jornal Público, Folha de São Paulo, Harvard Review of Latin America, Latin America Bureau and El País. He is founder of online journalism platform Amazônia Latitude and director of documentary films ‘Beyond Fordlandia’ and ‘Stepping Softly on the Earth’.
Colón is the Southwest Borderlands Initiative Professor of Media and Indigenous Communities at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. His research focuses on Brazilian literary and cultural studies, with a particular emphasis on the Amazon, Indigenous studies, and representations of nature-culture in documentary film and world cinema.
Thoughtful and thoroughly reported, The Amazon in Times of War is a must-read for all who care about the future of the rainforest — and planet Earth.
Scott Wallace, author of ‘The Unconquered: In Search of the Amazon’s Last Uncontacted Tribes’
Book launch in London
Join LAB with Brazil Matters, Kayeb, and Survival International us for a presentation of the brand-new book, a photography exhibition, and a panel discussion on amplifying Amazonian voices and supporting the region and its inhabitants internationally on Saturday 19 October from 2pm.
Researcher, writer, and documentary filmmaker Marcos Colón will be in discussion with Ali Rocha of Brazil Matters and Vanessa Gabriel of Kayeb for a panel discussion chaired by Fiona Watson of Survival International.
Drinks will be available at the bar and books available for purchase and signing with an 20% discount off the cover price.
General entry costs £5 and children are welcome to join for free. Get your tickets here.
This book is a powerful call for humanity to heed the voices of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon, to learn from them, and to act now.
Fiona Watson, Campaigns Director, Survival International
UK Book Tour
Marcos will be visiting the UK in October and speaking at a range of public events. Come and join us in your city. Dates below. If you’d like to organise a talk with Marcos, please get in touch.
