Seven Rivers
A Journey Through the Currents of Human History
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A magisterial history of the seven rivers representing the great natural arteries running through civilization, by virtue of the roles they have played in our shared and conflicted world history.
Every river deserves its own history.
The seven rivers in this narrative were chosen because they are major rivers that magnify the common qualities of these great natural arteries that run through civilization. The Nile, Danube, Niger, Mississippi, Ganges, Yangtze, and Thames are all "world rivers” by virtue of the roles they have each played in our shared and conflicted world history.
They have served as the power bases for empires and have been fought over as frontiers. Their river basins—those great systems of tributaries and groundwater all flowing to the main river—have been plundered for their gold, timber, salt, oil, rubber, and their people. Vast networks have been forged between these rivers, such as the deadly "middle passage” of the slave trade linking the Congo and Mississippi basins.
And rivers themselves have always had their own logic: their natural beauties, their floods, droughts, water-borne diseases, their tendency to silt up and mutate into marshland, their marshy subsidence below the cities of the unwary, their changes of course, tipping points and disappearances.
These rivers have shaped our lives, just as we have shaped theirs. What follows is the story of humanity, in seven rivers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Taylor, environmental history lecturer at the University of Greenwich, offers a deeply researched exploration of how seven rivers have shaped human societies around the world. From the Nile to the Mississippi, rivers are the "lifeblood" of civilization, offering drinking water, trade access, and navigation routes, Taylor explains. They've served as sites of powerful empires and sparked wars, and while humans have adapted waterways to meet their needs—building dams, levees, canals, and water mills—they've also been devastated by floods, droughts, and water-borne diseases. Taylor details how the Nile—the world's longest river—sustained dynasties in Ancient Egypt, the Danube was the site of geopolitical conflict and cultural exchange between East and West Europe, and the Ganges influenced Hindu and Buddhist practices, and became a vital artery for trade in India. In a similarly sweeping fashion, Taylor covers how human history unfolded along the Niger, Yangtze, Mississippi, and Thames rivers. The narratives at times get bogged down in extensive details, including a meticulous timeline of regime changes throughout Egyptian history, but useful maps and intriguing trivia keep the pages turning. History buffs will have a blast. Illus.
