NEW HAVEN, Conn. (Diya TV) — Indian-origin historian Sunil Amrith has won the 2025 British Academy Book Prize for his new book, The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years. The prestigious award, worth 25,000 pounds, honors outstanding non-fiction that deepens understanding of the world.

The British Academy praised Amrith’s work as “magisterial” and “beautifully written.” The judges said the book highlights the connections between human history and environmental change, showing how both shape each other. Amrith is the 13th winner of this international award.

Amrith’s book covers the last 500 years of human history, tracing the impact of empire, industrialization, and human ambition on the planet. From Portuguese silver mines in Peru to British gold fields in South Africa, the book spans continents and centuries. It explores how colonial railways, oil pipelines, and other human activities have transformed ecosystems around the world.

The historian’s work also examines migration, public health, and the ecological processes that link South and Southeast Asia to global environmental history. Through decades of research, Amrith provides a sweeping view of how humans and the environment have shaped each other.

Amrith, 46, is the Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History at Yale University. He also holds a secondary appointment at the Yale School of the Environment and serves as Yale’s Vice Provost for International Affairs. Born in Kenya to South Indian parents and raised in Singapore, he earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Cambridge in England.

Before joining Yale, Amrith taught at Harvard University, where he held the inaugural Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies position and co-directed the Joint Center for History and Economics. He also taught at Birkbeck College at the University of London.

His previous books include Unruly Waters, shortlisted for the 2019 Cundill Prize, and Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants, named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times Book Review. Amrith’s next book, Repair, will be the focus of his Wiles Lectures in 2026.

Speaking via live video from the U.S., Amrith acknowledged that his book highlights environmental and human suffering. “There’s no doubt it details a great deal of harm and suffering, both human and environmental, and it shows that the two were almost always interlinked,” he said.

He added that the book also offers hope. “Many paths were not taken, ideas have been forgotten, and movements may have failed, but they left a lasting legacy. Perhaps we can find, in returning to those paths not taken, seeds of inspiration for a more hopeful and less violent way of living together on this planet.”

Professor Rebecca Earle, chair of the judging panel, called Amrith’s book “vivid in detail and beautifully written,” noting its importance in understanding the climate crisis. “Amrith is a remarkable scholar whose global perspective reveals the impact of the environment on human history, as well as our impact on the environment. In fact, it’s not really possible to separate these two,” she said.

Professor Susan J. Smith, president of the British Academy, praised the book for combining rigorous research with compelling prose. “It is precisely the combination of evidence-informed insight, well-honed ideas, and great writing that we are proud to celebrate through our annual international book prize,” she said.

The British Academy Book Prize was established in 2013 to recognize exceptional non-fiction in the humanities and social sciences. To be eligible, books must be published in the U.K., available in English, and written by authors of any nationality.

Other shortlisted works included The Golden Road: How Ancient India Transformed the World by William Dalrymple and The Baton and The Cross: Russia’s Church from Pagans to Putin by Lucy Ash.