The Book Prize Index

Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History

Gregory Cushman

For centuries, bird guano has played a pivotal role in the agricultural and economic development of Latin America, East Asia, and Oceania. As their populations ballooned during the Industrial Revolution, North American and European powers came to depend on this unique resource as well, helping them meet their ever-increasing farming needs. This book explores how the production and commodification of guano has shaped the modern Pacific Basin and the world's relationship to the region. Marrying traditional methods of historical analysis with a broad interdisciplinary approach, Gregory T. Cushman casts this once little-known commodity as an engine of Western industrialization, offering new insight into uniquely modern developments such as environmental consciousness and conservation movements; the ascendance of science, technology, and expertise; international relations; and world war.

HistoryWorld History · medium confidenceWorld History81 signalsLlm Classifier: World History -> World HistoryGoogle Books: History -> HistoryAward Category: American History -> American HistoryScience & DiscoveryTechnology, Computing & AIEnergy, Extraction & ResourcesEnvironment, Conservation & Pollution

Award History

1 wins · 1 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
American Historical Association Book Prizes: Jerry Bentley Prize in World History2014WinnerOfficial source
View all award history (1)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

    These suggestions did not meet the normal display threshold and are more likely to be wrong.

    • Pacific Basin52%
    • Latin America38%
    • East Asia36%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    The production and commodification of bird guano shaped the modern Pacific Basin and the world’s relationship to the region, acting as an engine of Western industrialization and influencing environmental consciousness, conservation, science/technology expertise, and international relations.

    Model confidence 63%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    72 / 100 academic

    Academic

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 60%.