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The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History (Yale Agrarian Studies Series) Hardcover – September 28, 2021

by Ruth Mostern (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
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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.
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Previous page
  1. Part of series
    Yale Agrarian Studies Series
  2. Print length
    376 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Yale University Press
  5. Publication date
    September 28, 2021
  6. Dimensions
    7.2 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0300238339
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0300238334
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A survey of three millennia, based on an innovative historical geographic-information system.”—Andrew Robinson, Nature, “Best Science Pick of the Week”

“A sweeping and consequential work of environmental history  that displays . . . impressive skills in spatial and digital history.”—D. Jonathan Felt, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies

Winner of the Joseph Levenson Prize (China, Pre-1900), sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies

“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

“Ruth Mostern masterfully explores the ‘natural and unnatural’ impacts of the Yellow River. Her approach, emphasizing continuity and change over the longue durée, reveals a complex river that connects, dissects, transports, and displaces.”—David A. Pietz, author of The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China

“This unique book is testimony to the great value of spatial analysis and digital approaches. Read it for methodological innovation and let that change how you study history, humanities, and beyond!”—Ling Zhang, author of The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048–1128

“In her three-thousand-year history of the Yellow River, Ruth Mostern provides a genuinely new take, full of surprising insights, that makes compelling reading. A pioneering example of quantitatively informed environmental history.”—Valerie Hansen, author of The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began

“An outstanding merger of science and history, giving us a deeper understanding of the long, often tragic history of efforts to manage the Yellow River and the land it flows through.”—Kenneth Pomeranz, author of The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy

About the Author

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

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (September 28, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 376 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300238339
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300238334
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.75 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.2 x 1.2 x 9.1 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

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Ruth Mostern

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
7 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Margaret A.
5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Survey
Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2023
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This book presents a thorough history of the Yellow River watershed, going back to the prehistory. The area has been one of increasing research and English-writing scholars are beginning to do more work in the region, teasing apart the intricate braid of climate, hydrology, politics, culture, and human behavior to paint a fuller picture of the river.

In some ways, this book builds on _The River, The Plain, and The State_. However this work looks back farther, both in terms of time and geography, and ahead to the present day. The author argues that by the Ming Dynasty, land-use policies had become so entrenched in the river valley (pun intended) that while multiple experts and bureaucrats presented solutions to the problem of the destructive, silt-laden, destructive river, no one could shift the bureaucracy. The dynasties lacked the financial resources needed to pay for the work, the human resources to stop degradation of the upper watershed, and the ability to overcome inertia in the departments that managed the river. Toss in climate shifts that brought major weather changes from century to century, and it is easy to see how the Yellow River became the silty mess that it is today.

The book is an excellent environmental history. Readers do need to have a little general background in Chinese history, and some familiarity with hydrology and climatology is helpful. It is an easy read for someone with a little background, and has great maps and diagrams.
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Bayard B.
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical account of Yellow River channel routes and floods.
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2023
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This is an excellent discussion of the historic impact of the Yellow River on Chinese history and governance. It describes the many floods and course changes of the river that have occurred over recorded history, which goes back at least 2500 years. The river has flowed through channels north and south of the Shandong Peninsula over the millennia. The text is accompanied by several maps depicting the river’s routes to the Bohai Sea (northern route) and the East China Sea (southern route) over time.

The book also discusses the relationship between the westerly Loess Plateau and its function as the source of the huge amount of sediment that pours into the Yellow River. Because of the continuous sediment deposition over decades and centuries, the bed of the river is up to 50 feet (15 meters) above the adjacent flood plain. The river banks are normally a soft earth that easily erodes under flooding conditions.

It also describes the methods Chinese governments have used to try to control the flooding of the river over this time: levees on the river, diversion canals, storage lakes, mass labor conscription to clear sediment, and so forth. The book also discusses the country’s historic population shifts and dynasty changes during the time period.

This is not a river hydrology textbook but I think potential readers really need to be interested in the subject of historical river behavior and associated Chinese governments’ efforts to control its flooding.
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E. N. Anderson
5.0 out of 5 stars History of "China's Sorrow"
Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2022
The Yellow River was named "China's Sorrow" because of its history of flooding and shifting its course, leading to millions of deaths and incalculable losses of crops, farmland, and other resources. The river is unstable and uncertain in any case, but the worst problem is the Loess Plateau on its middle course, which erodes easily when stripped of natural cover, and releases millions of tons of silt into the river. Rising population, but above all the rise of civilization with its huge cities, huge wars, and huge inequities, led to deforestation, intensive cultivation, and thus more and more erosion. As Mark Twain said of the Mississippi, the river became "too thick to drink and too thin to plow." The silt load and the opening of the river from a rock gorge to the vast, flat North China Plain proved a deadly combination. The river even without humans would shift course over that plain, which is pretty much its delta. With silt load, human farming everywhere, and countless inadequate attempts to stop its flooding, it became more and more dangerous, though it also provided the water and silt that allowed farming to increase and flourish in much of the plain. Even today, attempts to control it are not wholly adequate. It will rise again.
Ruth Mostern's book is absolutely superb. She tells a clear, straightforward, well-written story, but behind that is a stunning job of data gathering. Most of this is presented visually: beautiful color photos (many of them her own), dozens of maps showing the river basin at every point in history, and dozens of graphs showing disasters and management, again at every point. Statistics are given for every dynasty, along with accounts of the failed management attempts. Throughout history, many people (indeed, everybody who made a close study of the issue) had a pretty good idea of what was wrong, but they could neither agree on a single policy nor invent the necessary technology to implement it. (By contrast, the Min River in Sichuan was controlled early and well, and still relies on the old plans. That story is not mentioned here, nor are general studies of climate such as the work of Harry Lee, David Zhang and their group in Hong Kong. This book stays strictly with the Yellow River itself.)
This book is thus an amazing record of titanic efforts of humans against the results of their own foolish actions.
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