Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's HistoryFrom a MacArthur "Genius," a bold new perspective on the history of Asia, highlighting the long quest to tame its waters Asia's history has been shaped by her waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines Asia's history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas -- and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. Looking out from India, he shows how dreams and fears of water shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations. Today, Asian nations are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change, Unruly Waters is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Asia's past and its future. |
Contents
THREE This Parched Land | |
FOUR The Aqueous Atmosphere | |
SEVEN Rivers Divided Rivers Dammed | |
EIGHT The Ocean and the Underground | |
NINE Stormy Horizons | |
EPILOGUE History and Memory at the Waters Edge | |
Also by Sunil Amrith | |
Other editions - View all
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History Sunil S. Amrith No preview available - 2018 |
Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia's History Sunil Amrith No preview available - 2018 |
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History Sunil Amrith No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural Archives Arthur Cotton Asian atmosphere Bay of Bengal Bhakra Blanford Bombay borders British India Calcutta Cambridge Canal Chinese climate change clouds coastal colonial Commission Cotton crisis crops cultivators cyclone decades Delhi district drought East ecological economic El Niño Empire environmental famine film flood force forecasts Gandhi Ganges global Government of India government’s groundwater historian human hydraulic imperial India’s climate India’s rivers India’s water Indian Meteorological Department Indian Ocean Indian Ocean Expedition Indus industrial infrastructure International irrigation land landscape large dams London Madras Meteorological Department migration million monsoon Mughal Mumbai National nature Nehru nineteenth century observatories observed official Pakistan Partition People’s percent political population projects Punjab railway rainfall rains region Report rural Sain scale scientists season social Society South Asia storm transformation twentieth century University Press valley village Walker weather William Roxburgh winds wrote Yellow River