The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.48 (815 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0393329992 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 480 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-09-08 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
David Blackbourn begins his morality tale in the mid-1700s, with the epic story of Frederick the Great, who attemptedby importing the great scientific minds of the West and by harnessing the power of his armyto transform the uninhabitable marshlands of his scattered kingdom into a modern state. Chronicling the great engineering projects that reshaped the mighty Rhine, the emergence of an ambitious German navy, and the development of hydroelectric power to fuel Germany's convulsive industrial growth before World War I, Blackbourn goes on to show how Nazi racial policies rested on German ideas of mastery of the natural world. "Brilliantly conceived.A tour de force in historical writing."Ian Kershaw Majestic and lyrically written, The Conque
Seth J. Frantzman said A brilliant masterpiece. In this masterful and original account the author takes the reader on a virtual tour de force examination of the way in which nature was changed, conquered, preserved, destroyed and manipulated in Germany between the time of Fredrick the Great and the present. The author notes that to "write about the shaping of the modern German landscape is to write about how modern Germany itself was shaped." It begins with the tale of the draining of the Oderburch, a great swamp on t. "David Blackbourn succeeds to bring together cultural and environmental history" according to Constance de Font-Reaulx. David Blackbourn succeeds to bring together cultural and environmental history. His argument--German's representation of nature mirrored the German state--is not just compelling. Indeed, Blackbourne succeeds with elegance, helped with a series of biographies and case-studies, to support his claim. Nevertheless, some can complain about the absence of the German Empire considering the role played by internal colonization to vanquish nature.. "Environmental history" according to Ethan G.. as a new field, this book does some really groundbreaking stuff with environmental history. Although a bit dense at times, it raises interesting questions and is a must read.
Conservatives thought that reclaiming marshland would provide Frederick the Great's regiments with an unimpeded line of march to the battlefront. The Nazis, too, perceived land reclamation as a duty for a "people without space." More recently, Greens have highlighted the downsides of water engineering (loss of biodiversity, pollution, overconsumption) even as its supporters trumpet its successes (free commerce, the end of malaria, control of flooding). From Publishers Weekly A modern-day German magically transported back 250 years would barely recognize his own country, says Blackbourn, a professor of history at Harvard. Where today manicured fields, straight canals and windmills dominate, then the landscape was "dark and waterlogged, filled with snaking channels half-hidden by overhanging lianas" and inhabited by mosquitoes, frogs, wild boar and wolves. The unique framin