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The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History

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A three-thousand-year history of China’s Yellow River and the legacy of interactions between humans and the natural landscape
 
“No other scholar has produced such a systematic, comprehensive account of the long-term changes in the river’s function and structure. I consider it to be the definitive work on the topic of the Yellow River to date.”—Peter C. Perdue, author of China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia
 
From Neolithic times to the present day, the Yellow River and its watershed have both shaped and been shaped by human society. Using the Yellow River to illustrate the long-term effects of environmentally significant human activity, Ruth Mostern unravels the long history of the human relationship with water and soil and the consequences, at times disastrous, of ecological transformations that resulted from human decisions.
 
As Mostern follows the Yellow River through three millennia of history, she underlines how governments consistently ignored the dynamic interrelationships of the river’s varied ecosystems—grasslands, riparian forests, wetlands, and deserts—and the ecological and cultural impacts of their policies. With an interdisciplinary approach informed by archival research and GIS (geographical information system) records, this groundbreaking volume provides unique insight into patterns, transformations, and devastating ruptures throughout ecological history and offers profound conclusions about the way we continue to affect the natural systems upon which we depend.

ISBN-13: 9780300238334

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Yale University Press

Publication Date: 09-28-2021

Pages: 376

Product Dimensions: 7.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

Series: Yale Agrarian Studies

Ruth Mostern is associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is also director of the World History Center.

Table of Contents

Graphics Style Reference Guide vi

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Seeing the Yellow River as a Whole 1

1 The Natural and Unnatural History of the Yellow River 22

2 Before It Was Yellow The Great River from Neolithic through Medieval Times 62

3 Loess Is More The Middle Period Tipping Point, 750-1350 121

4 Levies and Levees The Engineered River, 1351-1855 179

Epilogue The Yellow River in the Anthropocene 239

Appendix Tracking Yu: Developing a Data System for Yellow River History Ruth Mostern Ryan M. Horne 247

Glossary of Chinese Characters 267

Notes 273

Bibliography 293

Index 309

Color plates follow page 128.