Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History

Amrith, Sunil

ISBN 10: 0465097723 / ISBN 13: 9780465097722

Published by Basic Books, 2018

About this Item

Seller Inventory # I-9780465097722

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts, and Seas Have Shaped Asia's History
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465097723
• ISBN 13: 9780465097722
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

From 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.

About the Author

Sunil Amrith is the Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies and Professor of History at Harvard University and a 2017 MacArthur Fellow. The prize-winning author of Crossing the Bay of Bengal, as well as several other books and articles, he lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.