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Liquid empire : water and power in the colonial world / Corey Ross.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton : Princeton University Press, 2024Description: x, 447 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780691211442 (hbk.)
Other title:
  • Water and power in the colonial world
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 325.32094 ROS 23 022776
LOC classification:
  • TD218 .R67 2024
Contents:
Introduction. Water and empire -- Fluid networks: water, mobility and the infrastructure of empire -- Mastering the monsoon: seasonality and the rise of perennial irrigation -- Wastelands and water: hydraulic frontiers and the expansion of imperial power -- Deluge and disaster: the colonial politics of flood control -- Under the surface: fisheries and colonial development -- Water, colonial cities and the civilizing mission -- Water and energy: the development of colonial hydropower -- Ebb of empire: decolonization and the hydraulic remnants of colonialism -- Epilogue. Water, climate and the legacies of empire.
Summary: "In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These sprawling empires encompassed not only rainforests, deserts, and savannahs but also some of the world's most magnificent rivers, lakes, marshes, and seas. Liquid Empire tells the story of how the waters of the colonial world shaped the history of imperialism, and how this imperial past still haunts us today. Spanning the major European empires of the period, Corey Ross describes how new ideas, technologies, and institutions transformed human engagements with water and how the natural world was reshaped in the process. Water was a realm of imperial power whose control and distribution were closely bound up with colonial hierarchies and inequalities--but this vital natural resource could never be fully tamed. Ross vividly portrays the efforts of officials, engineers, fisherfolk, and farmers to exploit water, and highlights its crucial role in the making and unmaking of the colonial order. Revealing how the legacies of empire have persisted long after colonialism ebbed away, Liquid Empire provides needed historical perspective on the crises engulfing the world's waters, particularly in the Global South, where billions of people are faced with mounting water shortages, rising flood risks, and the relentless depletion of sea life."--
List(s) this item appears in: New Collection April 2025
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Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Book Book Indian Institute for Human Settlements, Bangalore 325.32094 ROS 022776 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 022776

Includes bibliographical references (p. 393-438) and index.

Introduction. Water and empire -- Fluid networks: water, mobility and the infrastructure of empire -- Mastering the monsoon: seasonality and the rise of perennial irrigation -- Wastelands and water: hydraulic frontiers and the expansion of imperial power -- Deluge and disaster: the colonial politics of flood control -- Under the surface: fisheries and colonial development -- Water, colonial cities and the civilizing mission -- Water and energy: the development of colonial hydropower -- Ebb of empire: decolonization and the hydraulic remnants of colonialism -- Epilogue. Water, climate and the legacies of empire.

"In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These sprawling empires encompassed not only rainforests, deserts, and savannahs but also some of the world's most magnificent rivers, lakes, marshes, and seas. Liquid Empire tells the story of how the waters of the colonial world shaped the history of imperialism, and how this imperial past still haunts us today. Spanning the major European empires of the period, Corey Ross describes how new ideas, technologies, and institutions transformed human engagements with water and how the natural world was reshaped in the process. Water was a realm of imperial power whose control and distribution were closely bound up with colonial hierarchies and inequalities--but this vital natural resource could never be fully tamed. Ross vividly portrays the efforts of officials, engineers, fisherfolk, and farmers to exploit water, and highlights its crucial role in the making and unmaking of the colonial order. Revealing how the legacies of empire have persisted long after colonialism ebbed away, Liquid Empire provides needed historical perspective on the crises engulfing the world's waters, particularly in the Global South, where billions of people are faced with mounting water shortages, rising flood risks, and the relentless depletion of sea life."--

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