Throughout history, rivers have run a wide course through human temporal
and spiritual experience. They have demarcated mythological worlds,
framed the cradle of Western civilization, and served as physical and
psychological boundaries among nations. Rivers have become a crux of
transportation, industry, and commerce. They have been loved as
nurturing providers, nationalist symbols, and the source of romantic
lore but also loathed as sites of conflict and natural disaster.
Rivers in History presents one of the first comparative histories of
rivers on the continents of Europe and North America in the modern age.
The contributors examine the impact of rivers on humans and, conversely,
the impact of humans on rivers. They view this dynamic relationship
through political, cultural, industrial, social, and ecological
perspectives in national and transnational settings.
As integral sources of food and water, local and international
transportation, recreation, and aesthetic beauty, rivers have dictated
where cities have risen, and in times of flooding, drought, and war,
where they've fallen. Modern Western civilizations have sought to
control rivers by channeling them for irrigation, raising and lowering
them in canal systems, and damming them for power generation.
Contributors analyze the regional, national, and international
politicization of rivers, the use and treatment of waterways in urban
versus rural environments, and the increasing role of international
commissions in ecological and commercial legislation for the protection
of river resources. Case studies include the Seine in Paris, the
Mississippi, the Volga, the Rhine, and the rivers of Pittsburgh. Rivers
in History is a broad environmental history of waterways that makes a
major contribution to the study, preservation, and continued
sustainability of rivers as vital lifelines of Western culture.
