Burning Swamps

Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia's Fossil Economy

Katja Bruisch (Trinity College Dublin)

$272.95 $218.21

Hardback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Cambridge University Press
25 September 2025

20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Historical geography; Environmental economics

Series: Studies in Environment and History

This groundbreaking environmental history recounts the story of Russia's fossil economy from its margins. Unpacking the forgotten history of how peat fuelled manufacturing industries and power plants in late Imperial and Soviet Russia, Katja Bruisch provides a corrective to more familiar historical narratives dominated by coal, oil, and gas. Attentive to the intertwined histories of matter and labor during a century of industrial peat extraction, she offers a fresh perspective on the modern Russian economy that moves beyond the socialism/capitalism binary. By identifying peat extraction in modern Russia as a crucial chapter in the degradation of the world's peatlands, Bruisch makes a compelling case for paying attention to seemingly marginal places, people, and resources as we tell the histories of the planetary emergency.

By: Katja Bruisch (Trinity College Dublin)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
ISBN: 9781009603089
ISBN 10: 1009603086
Series: Studies in Environment and History
Pages: 292
Publication Date: 25 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction, Part I. Promising Environments: Material Premises of Growth and Power: 1. Appropriation; 2. Mobilization; Part II. Working Environments: Extraction and the Making of Place: 3. Exploitation; 4. Transformation; Part III. Unsettling Environments: Threat, Loss, and Precarity in Russia's Peatlands: 5. Irritation; 6. Revaluation; Conclusions; Bibliography; Index.

Katja Bruisch is Ussher Assistant Professor in Environmental History at Trinity College Dublin.

Reviews for Burning Swamps: Peat and the Forgotten Margins of Russia's Fossil Economy

'Burning Swamps offers remarkable insights on the social, economic, and environmental life of the Soviet Union by recasting the global history of fossil fuels from the standpoint of peat extraction. Bruisch brilliantly foregrounds unanticipated ecologies, labor and gender inequities, regional and seasonal dependencies, and widespread irritations.' Andy Bruno, Indiana University Bloomington 'By recovering the history of Russia's reliance on peat as an industrial fuel from imperial through Soviet times, Katja Bruisch's Burning Swamps helps us appreciate just how central the margins can be to the rise of the fossil economy. A wonderful study relevant to all interested in energy, environment, and the endurance of extractivist states.' Victor Seow, author of Carbon Technocracy