Preface ix

Introduction. "The Rot Remains": From Ruins to Ruination / Ann Laura Stoler 1

Part I. Decompositions of Matter and Mind

1. An Acoustic Register: Rape and Repetition in Congo / Nancy Rose Hunt 39

2. The Coolie: An Unfinished Epic / E. Valentine Daniel 67

3. Empire's Ruin: Detroit to the Amazon / Greg Grandin 115

Part II. Living in Ruins: Degradations and Regenerations

4. Detritus in Durban: Polluted Environs and the Biopolitics of Refusal / Sharad Chari 131

5. Ruins, Redemption, and Brazil's Imperial Exception / John Collins 162

6. When a Demolished House Becomes a Public Square / Ariella Azoulay 194

Part III. Anticipating the Imperial Future

7. The Void: Invisible Ruins on the Edges of Empire / Gastón Gordillo 227

8. Engineering the Future as Nuclear Ruin / Joseph Masco 252

9. The Future in Ruins / Vyjayanthi Rao 287

Bibliography 323

Contributors 355

Index 357

Ann Laura Stoler

Nancy Rose Hunt

E. Valentine Daniel

Sharad Chari

Ariella Azoulay

John F. Collins

Gastón R. Gordillo

Greg Grandin

Joseph Masco

Vyjayanthi Venuturupalli Rao

“The contributors analyze enduring ‘rot’ and ‘debris’ in a variety of global settings . . . . Highly recommended. University collections, all levels.” — P. C. Naylor, Choice

“This rich volume provides valuable material for reflection by readers concerned with the effects of colonialism, with the ruination not only of buildings but of social relations and social groups. . . . It includes several rich interventions from which historians and others can benefit greatly.”  — Rashid Khalidi, American Historical Review

“This is a book of weight and consequence. . . .  Stoler has curated as much as edited a volume that, writing against a certain silencing of the present, examines ruination as an ongoing process in the aftermath of empire.” — Richard Pithouse, Canadian Journal of History

"Critical, theoretically sophisticated, and full of fascinating scholarship. . . .  This is a weighty and important volume . . . which will leave its trace in American Studies, postcolonial studies, heritage studies, and the ecological humanities." — Gesa Mackenthun, Amerikastudien/American Studies

“The contributors analyze enduring ‘rot’ and ‘debris’ in a variety of global settings . . . . Highly recommended. University collections, all levels.” —P. C. Naylor, Choice

“This rich volume provides valuable material for reflection by readers concerned with the effects of colonialism, with the ruination not only of buildings but of social relations and social groups. . . . It includes several rich interventions from which historians and others can benefit greatly.”  —Rashid Khalidi, American Historical Review

“This is a book of weight and consequence. . . .  Stoler has curated as much as edited a volume that, writing against a certain silencing of the present, examines ruination as an ongoing process in the aftermath of empire.” —Richard Pithouse, Canadian Journal of History

"Critical, theoretically sophisticated, and full of fascinating scholarship. . . .  This is a weighty and important volume . . . which will leave its trace in American Studies, postcolonial studies, heritage studies, and the ecological humanities." —Gesa Mackenthun, Amerikastudien/American Studies

"Imperial Debris questions some of our deepest assumptions about violence and its residues. This astute, wide-ranging, and ambitious volume refocuses our attention on the incremental processes of ruination that are typically overlooked in favor of official ruins. The result is a major intervention in postcolonial and visual studies." — Rob Nixon, author of Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor

"Barely controlled rage is never far offstage as we are drawn into the continuing drama of empire's ruins—scarred landscapes, polluted places, shattered peoples, and the rot that remains. From sadistic torture and ruination of bodies and souls in the (Belgian) Congo to the lives of Sri Lankan 'coolie' estate workers analyzed in epic poetry, from the state’s attempt to patrimonialize impoverished citizens in contemporary Bahia to Israeli destruction of Palestinian homes and spirits in Gaza, this book forces a new, critical gaze on the ways that colonialism lives on in the present." — Richard Price, author of The Convict and the Colonel, Travels with Tooy, and Rainforest Warriors

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