{"product_id":"in-praise-of-floods-by-james-c-scott-9780300292305","title":"In Praise of Floods","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Informative, enjoyable, and provocative. . . . Scott's [prose] is dry, clear, and scalding with moral purpose.\" - Becca Rothfeld, \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn Praise of Floods\u003c\/em\u003e presents rivers, on a long view, as alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the annual flood pulse—the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain—that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees. In demonstrating these threats to the riverine world, award-winning author James C. Scott examines the life history of a particular river, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) of Burma, the heartland and superhighway of Burman culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eScott opens our understanding of rivers to encompass their entirety—tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, backwaters, eddies, periodic marshlands, and the assemblage of life forms dependent on rivers for their existence and well-being. For anyone interested in the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration, rivers offer a striking example of the consequences of human intervention in trying to control and domesticate a natural process, the complexity and variability of which we barely understand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47562848665836,"sku":"9780300292305","price":53.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780300292305-in-praise-of-floods.jpg?v=1776988127","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/products\/in-praise-of-floods-by-james-c-scott-9780300292305","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}