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Book Review
| A History of Water. Volume 1: Water Control and River Biographies. By Terje Tvedt and Eva Jakobsson. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. xxiii + 631 pp. Illustrations, maps, and index. Cloth $120.00; A History of Water. Volume 2: The Political Economy of Water. By Terje Tvedt and Richard Coopey. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. xxvii + 564 pp. Illustrations, maps, and index. Cloth $120.00; A History of Water. Volume 3: The World of Water. By Terje Tvedt and Terje Oestigaard. London: I.B. Tauris, 2006. xxii + 506 pp. Illustrations, maps, and index. Cloth $120.00.
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| "The future of fresh water is the future of humanity," argue Terje Tvedt and Eva Jakobsson in the introduction to the first volume of this massive collection of articles on the history of water (vol. 1, p. xi). In their assessment, water influences society both in the short term and in the longue durée; thus, the history of water is extremely relevant for understanding current affairs and the future of humanity. Tvedt, a professor at the University of Bergen, Norway, was the leader of a large research project on the history of water, which resulted in a popular-style, richly illustrated book on the history of water in Norwegian (now in its second edition), a brand new book on the future of water, a three-hour TV series (out on DVD in eight languages including English), as well as these edited collections. |
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In most edited collections, the editors take care to say that they are not all-inclusive. This is not the case with A History of Water. The books are a monumental effort, comprising seventy-five articles over almost two thousand pages. As such, they are not something the average scholar reads from cover to cover. Reviewing all the articles in detail in a short book review is impossible; I will instead synthesize what I see as the general approach of the articles and note those of particular interest to environmental historians. Despite the fact that the books are called "the history of water," far from all of the articles can be categorized as environmental history—most belong to other disciplines, including sociology, political science, cultural anthropology, environmental science, and religious studies. The editors have chosen to organize the three volumes in a total of eighteen different sections. The individual parts contain everything from one to ten papers, and the organization feels somewhat haphazard at times. Many parts are very similar, and many papers could easily fit into different parts. |
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Water control is a recurring theme in all three volumes, but most clearly in volumes 1 and 2. Water is hard to control: it is fluid and in constant change, both materially and culturally. Furthermore, water control is perhaps the historical activity that has left the biggest traces, both physical and archival. For this reason, most articles focus on societal attempts to control water, be it materially, socially, economically, culturally, religiously, or legally. The articles generally argue that man's relationship to nature has changed over time from acceptance to resistance to control, yet nature continues to evade this control. The complexity of ecological interrelations has muddied the technological ordering of nature. Attempts at ecological restoration of rivers have further complicated the picture, as for instance Marion Steele (vol. 1) shows. The editors argue that the complexity of water needs to be considered in policy, and the books clearly show how many such attempts have failed. |
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The long time span and broad geographical approach allow readers to explore how the motivations, means, and goals for water control have changed as new factors such as new technologies, colonialism, and postcolonialism, the market economy, and modern environmentalism have entered the picture. For instance, several articles, including those by Joshua Forrest, Kristin Gaarde, and Eran Feitelson (all in vol. 2) address how many colonial powers, particularly Britain, replaced community-based water control systems in Africa and Asia with new colonial technological systems, which then had to be maintained (or not maintained) by the independent nations after the colonial governments disappeared. These articles provide interesting insights into the complex dynamics between technological, social, and environmental change. |
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