- Paperback: 592 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press (26 Sep 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300119933
- ISBN-13: 978-0300119930
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.8 x 4 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 543,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
The Retreat of the Elephants
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Product Description
Review
"by far the best history of the interaction between the traditional Chinese and their surroundings... stupendously learned." Jonathan Mirsky, Literary Review "majestic depth and brutal detail... a heavyweight work.' Simon Barnes, The Times "Masterly and engaging... Essential for those who want to understand the long sweep of Chinese history, and it will enhance the perspective of those who think they already understand it. A scholarly tour de force." J. R. McNeill, Wilson Quarterly "Elvin combines an illuminating account of the 4,000 year-long collision of humans and nature with delightful tidbits about everything under the Chinese sun... A magisterial work." Nicholas D. Kristof, Scientific American"
Jonathan Fenby, Financial Times, Magazine, 15 May 2004
‘monumental...a wealth of delights’
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
The environmental history of China covers a varied space. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The environmental history of China covers a varied space. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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5 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Not really about elephants, but fascinating just the same
7 Feb 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Mark Elvin's book is not really about elephants. The elephants are a symbol for the retreat of nature from China. What the book makes clear is that China's environmental disaster is not a product of the 20th century, but dates back thousands of years when the early dynasties stamped out a culture of hunter-gathering in favor of agriculture and engaged in a deliberate destruction of flora and fauna for economic and political gain. Early Chinese dynasties were damming rivers and carving away mountains long before Mao tse-tung expounded his theories man conquering nature, the Chinese were damming rivers and carving away rivers. The book is not complimentary of Han Chinese culture's attitudes towards the environment. Elvin makes clear that other ethnic groups had more interest in maintaining harmony between man and nature. The research that went into this book is impressive. Elvin quotes extensively from literary sources and even oracle bones to explore Chinese attitudes towards nature. The book doesn't dwell much on what happened after China's economic boom in the late 20th century, but nonetheless goes a long way towards explaining why the Chinese landscape looks the way it does today.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
new angle to understand China
18 Jan 2007
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a landmark book on environmental history that is well-received by many academics (also check out other reviews on the web). For me personally, this books helps me understand today's China's problems better than many other books I've read.
It maybe a stretch for people that to understand today's China, you need to go back to its 3000 years of environmental history. However, this book offers many potential answers to many questions that are still relevant today - e.g. Is China's growth sustainable? Why Chinese people have such relationships with their government? Where does her seemingly in-exhaustible labor pool come from?
The book illuminates the constant struggles between the Chinese population and her environments throughout her 3000 years of written history, with the Chinese state often being the driving force and the subsequent victim when nature eventually fought back. Many such struggles are still being repeated today - for example, the recent push of China to develop its north-west region resembled the same push Chin/Han dynasties started from 300 BC, which resulted in permanent soil erosions that gave yellow river its name and caused numerous disasters downstreams since. The Three Gorges Dam is an extension to the long running tradition of massive state-sponsored hydro-projects trying to control the river in the name for "growth". The list goes on and on...
History is bound to repeat herself if we ignore her. Hopefully this books will not be ignored.
It maybe a stretch for people that to understand today's China, you need to go back to its 3000 years of environmental history. However, this book offers many potential answers to many questions that are still relevant today - e.g. Is China's growth sustainable? Why Chinese people have such relationships with their government? Where does her seemingly in-exhaustible labor pool come from?
The book illuminates the constant struggles between the Chinese population and her environments throughout her 3000 years of written history, with the Chinese state often being the driving force and the subsequent victim when nature eventually fought back. Many such struggles are still being repeated today - for example, the recent push of China to develop its north-west region resembled the same push Chin/Han dynasties started from 300 BC, which resulted in permanent soil erosions that gave yellow river its name and caused numerous disasters downstreams since. The Three Gorges Dam is an extension to the long running tradition of massive state-sponsored hydro-projects trying to control the river in the name for "growth". The list goes on and on...
History is bound to repeat herself if we ignore her. Hopefully this books will not be ignored.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A scholarly work
14 Feb 2012
Format:Paperback
Let me comment on the reviewers. The academics give the book five stars, and the occasional nay sayer gives it three. They are both right. The book is an academic tour de force, an excursion into anthropological, ecological, demographic, and literary theory. A treasure trove of information for the academically inclined. For the general reader, on the other hand (the reader wondering what to make of the Three Gorges Dam, how many fish remain in the East China Sea, or the fate of the panda), the pickings are rather slim. The subtitle might have mentioned that the history ends with the end of imperial China. The chapters on the Yellow River delta I found particularly confusing. You need a good atlas (Elvin tells you this in the first sentence of the book) but I think it was more than that. I agree with the three star review on this. The chapters on minorities in China's southwest, on the other hand, delve into the history of that colonialism and send me off to my bookshelf to dust off a couple of ethnographies. A very fine piece of scholarship. Some will find it rough going.
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