The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River - Hardcover

White, Richard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809035596 ISBN 13: 9780809035595

Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub, 1995

Synopsis

Describes how humans have changed the Columbia River, and discusses the way people interact with nature through work

About this title

About the Author

Richard White is professor of history at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Reviews

Prizewinning University of Washington historian White's "organic machine" is the Columbia River and its tributaries: along this energy powerhouse, Native American fishermen and eastern adventurers, spawning salmon and man-made machines--from gill nets and fish wheels to hydroelectric dams and Hanford Engineer Works--came together to forge "a new energy regime, a new geography, and a new relationship between human labor and the energy of nature." Viewing human history and natural history as part of the same narrative, not as parallel stories, White argues "it is our work that ultimately links us, for better or worse, to nature." The Organic Machine focuses on that linkage to illuminate both the conflicting human claims and constructions that have "disassembled" the mighty river over the decades and the "larger organic cycles beyond [human] control" to which the river system remains tied. White urges that it is this mixture of organic and human-made that defines both the river's history and its current reality. Includes a bibliographical essay but no footnotes; an annotated version is in the University of Washington Library's Special Collections. Mary Carroll

Award-winning author White (history, Univ. of Washington) offers a powerful and exploratory look into the relationship between people and nature in the Pacific Northwest. The result is an alarming vision of the history of life along the Columbia River. By examining both Indian and white interactions, the author molds a new environmentalism that incorporates pollution, inorganic naturalness, and environmental destruction, as well as a certain energy and mysticism. The relationship between the Columbia River and the people in its sweep can be symbolized by the "organic machine." According to White, this machine incorporates all living creatures in the environment, each with a "social claim to their part of the machine." White approaches the conflict between humanity and nature earlier noted by minds such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Lewis Mumford with passion, optimism, emotion, and intelligence, connecting the reader on a variety of levels. Recommended for most libraries.
Vicki L. Toy Smith, Univ. of Nevada, Reno
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809035596
• ISBN 13: 9780809035595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 130
• Editor: Foner Eric