Sunil Amrith Wins British Academy Book Prize

• 23 Oct 2025

In October, 2025, Indian-origin historian Sunil Amrith won the prestigious British Academy Book Prize for his latest work - The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years, an exploration of the intertwined history of humanity and the environment.

• The British Academy Book Prize, valued at £25,000, honours exceptional non-fiction books that enhance understanding of the modern world through outstanding scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
• Sunil Amrith, currently a history professor at Yale University, was born in Kenya to South Indian parents, raised in Singapore, and earned his degree from the University of Cambridge, reflecting his deeply global academic background.
• The Burning Earth traces 500 years of environmental and human history, illustrating how colonisation, industrialisation, and global migration patterns have shaped today’s ecological crisis and redefined the relationship between people and nature.