A History of Water, Series I, Three Volume Set

These three volumes present an original exploration of all aspects of water--social, cultural, political, religious, historical, economic and technological--from ancient times to the present day. Among the varied themes, the contributors examine the changing histories of water as a private or common good; the politics of water at local, urban, national and international levels; water in cities, great river plans, dams, river biographies, and cultural constructions of water; and images of water in religion, myth, literature and art. With empirical and ethnographic case studies from around the world the three volumes together represent one of the most complete and up-to-date accounts of the central role of water in the history and development of humanity.

VOLUME I: Great Plans * Seizing Favours From Nature: The Rise and Fall of Siberian River Diversions--D.F. Duke * The World's Largest Contiguous Irrigation System: Development, Successes and Challenges of the Indus Irrigation System in Pakistan--A.D. Khan & M.A. Kahlown * The Failure of Irrigation, Institutions and Technologies to Achieve Equitable Water Control in the Indus Basin--G. E. Van Halsema & V. Linden * Controlling the Waters in 20th Century China: The Nationalist State and the Huai River--D. Pietz| * The Chinese Way of Harnessing Rivers: The Yangtze River--F. Padovani * Water Control and Agricultural Development: Crafting Deltaic Environments in Southeast Asia--F. Molle & D. T. Tuan * Environmental Risk in Water Resource Management: A Multiscale Analysis of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam--F. Miller * Overcoming Nature and Man: Mechanical Cultivation in the Rufiji River Basin, Tanganyika--H.J. Hoag * Living With Water: Bangladesh Since Ancient Times--A. Kamal * River Biographies * The Early History of a River: Mexico's Upper Lerma River--B.B. Schoendube * The History of the Tama River: Social Reconstruction--W. Steele * Seeing Like the Prussian State: Re-Engineering the Rivers of the Rhineland and Westphalia--M. Cioc * The River Has Recorded the Story: Living With the Hawkesbury River, Australia--B. Simmons * Poverty, Water and Environmental Degradation: The Langat River Basin,Malaysia--C. Siwar * Water Power in Early Norwegian Industrialization: The Aker River--E. Bagle * Water in Cities * Water and Wastes in Mediaeval London--R. Magnusson * Defeating Water-Borne Epidemics in Oslo--T.A. Johansen * Critical Decisions in Pittsburgh Water and Wastewater Management--J.A. Tarr * Engineering the Technological Sublime: The Provision of Water For New York City--M. Gandy * Socio-Economic Implications of Water Supply in Nigerian Urban Centres--I.O. Adelekan * The Political Economy of Water Supply in Chennai, South India--E. Weber * Organising Water * Keeping Running Water Clean: Mining and Pollution in Pre-Industrial Japan--P.G. Sippel * Waste or Want, Pure or Polluted: Issues in the Water History of 19th Century Trinidad--R.A. Pemberton * Salinity: The Failure of New South Wales to Learn From India--K. Proust * Management of Wetlands in Relation to River Basins--A Case Study From Southwest India--E.J. James * Aspects of Public Water Supply in Guernsey, Channel Islands--V. Gardiner * Emerging Problems and Strategies For Sustainable Freshwater Development in Coastal Areas--B.M. Sahni * The 'Mfongo' Irrigation Systems on the Slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania--M. Tagseth * Alkalinity, Salinity and California Irrigation: The Role of Eugene Woldemar Hilgard--W.E. Pittman * Debating Water * The Rescue of English Wales and the Role of Environmental Pressure Groups--J. Hassan * Management of the Mekong River Basin: Contesting Its Sustainability From a Communication Perspective--M.T. Lang * The Bio-Bio Project and the Mapuche-Pehuenche People of Chile--I. Nordbø * Composite Water: The Cultural Construction of Rivers and the Violence of Modernisation in Delta Bangladesh--M. Mannan

VOLUME II: Urban and Local Water Politics * Water Supply in Spain: A Service Between Private Firms and Municipal Control--J.M. Mates * The Pipe-Bound City in Time and Space: Applying GIS to the Historical Development of Two Swedish Cities and Their Water and Sewage Systems--T. Schmid and J. Hallstrom * Inequities in Urban Supply in India: A Study of Municipal Towns in Andhra Pradesh--C. Ramachandraiah * Water Politics and Control: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives--T. Ruf * Social Movements and Conflicts Over Water in Mexico--P. Avila Garcia * Inequality and Social Exclusion in the Access to Drinking Water: The City of Cochambamba, Bolivia--C. Ledo * National Water Politics * Wittfogel and Hydraulic Despotism--N. Brown * Reshaping the Political: Factorising the Nile Waters in the Sudan--H.M. El Zain * Water Resources and Racial Inequality in South-West Africa--J.B. Forrest * British Colonial Water Legislation: The Case of Mandatory Palestine--K. Gaarde * A Retreat From Centralized Water Management? the Israeli Case--E. Feitelson * Water and Transforming Agriculture in Bulgaria--M. Ilieva & I. Iliev * Market Oriented Sustainable Water Resources Management in China--M. Xianqiang * The Role of Irrigation in State Formation in Ancient Korea--B.W. Kang * The Role of Irrigation in the Historical Development of Central Asia--V. Umarov and V. Dukhovny * Cambodia's Development and Its Water and Other Natural Resources: An Historical Perspective--S. Acharya and C. Sophal * Gender, Poverty and Water: Inclusion and Exclusion in Pakistan--M. Khan-Tirmizi * International Hydropolitics * The Nile As a Legal and Political Structure--J.W. Delapennea * The Nile Basin: Predicaments of Upstream-Downstream Cooperation: Prospects For 21st Century--Y. Arsano * The 1944 Water Treaty between Mexico and the USA: Present Situation and Future Potential--A. Sanchez * Developing Lesotho's Water Resources: The Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme.--M. Thabane * Great Lakes Fisheries: International Response to the Decline of the Fisheries and the Lemprey/Alewife Invasion--P.V. Scarpino * Energy and Environmental Security: The Dyr Darya Crisis of Central Asia--K. Lang * Fish Versus Power: Science and Society on the Fraser River--M. Evenden * Water Law and Legal Issues * Governing Water Quality: Industrial Waste Disposal and Riparian Law in 19th Century USA--J. Paavola * Traditional and Contemporary Urban Water Use in a Kathmandu Valley--A. Regmi * Water As Property in the American West--R.B.Neaser & M.G. Smith * Local Availability of Water and Groundwater Rights in Mexico--G.V. Dyrnes * Theoretical Issues * My Land, My Water, Your Problem: Co-Evolutionary Processes and the Development of Water Policy Tools--P. Jeffrey, M. Lemon & B. Jefferson

VOLUME III: Culture and Control * Commons or Commodity * Water in the Age of Imperialism and Beyond--D. Worster * From Sacred Ownership to Colonial Commons: Water Tenure Systems in the Laupala Valley of Central Africa--D. Gordon * Changing Narratives of Water Control in Oahu, Hawai'I--K.A. Berry * Limitations to 'Indigenous People Participation': Conflict in Water Use in an African Mining Economy--F.A. Akiwumi * Symbols of Power * Powering the Nation: A Social History of Hydro-Electricity in Ireland--M. Maguire * The Power of the Disappearance: Water and the Jerid in Tunisia--V. Battesti * Water as a Symbol of Power: A Study of the Hydraulic System of Golkonda Hyederabad--W.Y. Chii * Water As Hierarchy and Structuring Principle * Water, Hindu Mythology and an Unequal Social Order in India--D. Joshi & B. Fawcett * Unity and Abstraction: Ethics and Modernity in the Technology of the American New Deal--B. Black * An Evolutionary History of Water Rights in South Asia--D.D.Tewari * Water Culture, Ethnic Tradition and Sustainable Development of the Tai Peoples of China--Z.X. Yun * Cultural Vehicles and Cases of Man-Water Relations in Rural India--A. Damodaran * Knowledge of Water * Early Development in Groundwater Research in the Netherlands--J.J. De Vries * River Works in Famine Ireland--J.C.I. Dooge * Understanding and Conceptualising Water * Water As Text and Meaning * Rivers As Texts: From Pre-Modern to Post-Modern Understandings of Development, Technology and the Environment--J. Manore * Construction of Meaning For 'Water' in Japanese Cultures and Politics--M. Mervio * Constructing a Myth of Purity: The Marketing of Welsh Water--O. Roberts * Perceptions of Safe Water--E.M. Rinne * Water in Literature and Art * 'Of Frogs' Eyes and Cows' Drinking Water': Water in the Lives of the Kabras of Western Kenya--V.K. Inviolata * Water Symbolism in Kiswahili Literary Works--W. Nabea * The Water-Side Dwellers Sleep Thirsting: Cultural Interpretations of Water Form in a Rural Community--F.K. Lukalo * The Pastoral, the Monumental and What Lies in Between: Images of Dams and Riperian Landscape--D.C. Jackson * Water Images in Latin American Cinema: The Case of Fernando Solanas--J. Askeland & A. Ramirez * Water in Religion and Mythology * A Christian Perspective on Water and Water Rights--A. Armstrong & M. Armstrong * Highlights on River Cult and Management Practices in Ancient India--J. James * Rainmaking and Life-Giving Waters * Science in the Social Sphere: Weather Modification and Public Response--S. Matthewman * River and Rain: Life-Giving Waters in Nepalese Death Rituals--T. Ostigard * 'The Wealth of These Nations': Rain, Rulers and Religion on the Cuvelai Floodplain--M. Mckittrick * The Lozi Flood Tradition--C.M. Nemafe

Terje Tvedt is Professor and Research Director at the Center for Development Studies, University of Bergen and a Panel Member of UNESCO's World Water Assessment Programme.

Terje Ostigaard is Research Fellow at Center for Development Studies Studies, University of Bergen, Norway