The Ecology of War in China

Henan Province, the Yellow River, and Beyond, 1938-1950

Häftad, Engelska, 2016

AvMicah S. Muscolino,Micah S. (University of Oxford) Muscolino

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This book explores the interplay between war and environment in Henan Province, a hotly contested frontline territory that endured massive environmental destruction and human disruption during the conflict between China and Japan during World War II. In a desperate attempt to block Japan's military advance, Chinese Nationalist armies under Chiang Kai-shek broke the Yellow River's dikes in Henan in June 1938, resulting in devastating floods that persisted until after the war's end. Greater catastrophe struck Henan in 1942-3, when famine took some two million lives and displaced millions more. Focusing on these war-induced disasters and their aftermath, this book conceptualizes the ecology of war in terms of energy flows through and between militaries, societies, and environments. Ultimately, Micah Muscolino argues that efforts to procure and exploit nature's energy in various forms shaped the choices of generals, the fates of communities, and the trajectory of environmental change in North China.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2016-05-26
Mått150 x 230 x 18 mm
Vikt470 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieStudies in Environment and History
Antal sidor310
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781107417595

Tillhör följande kategorier

Introduction; 1. A militarized river: the 1938 Yellow River flood and its aftermath; 2. Stories of survival: refugee migration and ecological adaptation; 3. Military metabolism and the Henan famine of 1942–3; 4. Against the flow: hydraulic instability and ecological exhaustion; 5. The ecology of displacement: social and environmental effects of refugee migration; 6. The land needs the people, the people need the land: beginnings of postconflict recovery; 7. Reconstruction and revolution; Conclusion.

'This is a riveting study of one of modern history's worst war-induced disasters. In 1938 the Yellow River was turned into a weapon of strategic defense, its waters let loose on the North China plain by Chinese forces resisting the Japanese invasion. This consummate work shows the evolution of the disaster and lays out its ghastly human and ecological effects. It is a pioneering combination of environmental history and Chinese history.' Diana Lary, University of British Columbia