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Like a real-life Game of Thrones, Susanna Hecht’s latest book, “The Scramble for the Amazon and the Lost Paradise of Euclides da Cunha,” describes the machinations and political intrigue as the world’s powers fought for the 19th century’s greatest prize: the Amazon Basin.France, Britain, Belgium, and hemispheric aspirants like the U.S., Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador all vied for the coveted resource that was vital to the industrial revolution. What we imagine as “a world without history” was a geopolitical hotspot at the center of global imperial aspirations. Susanna Hecht is a professor in UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Geography, and the coauthor, with Alexander Cockburn, of The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon.