The Hydrosphere of Monsoon Asia

Prasenjit Duara is Oscar Tang Family Distinguished Professor of East Asian Studies at Duke University. James L. Wescoat, Jr. is Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Geography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• Introduction. Aqueous lives in terrestrial spheres Prasenjit Duara; Part I. Oceans and Terraqueous Activity: 1. Toward a macro historical geography of lives and histories in the hydrosphere of monsoon Asia James L. Wescoat; 2. Japanese history in hydrological dimensions Jonas Rüegg; 3. Terraqueous work and oceanic temporalities Nadin Heé; Part II. Ocean Coasts: 4. Typhoons between time: experiencing and understanding the hydrosphere through storms Clark Alejandrino; 5. Port cities, the ocean, and the hydrosphere Sunil Amrith; 6. Speculative geographies and hydrological realities: a coastal stretch in Western India Chandana Anusha; Part III. Terrestrial Waters: 7. A shatterzone on an ecotone: spatial and political ecologies of erosion at the periphery of the monsoon hydrosphere Ruth Mostern and Raorao Su; 8. Sediment continuity and developing 'whole basin' measures to address Mekong delta subsidence G Mathias Kondolf; 9. Small hydropower and region formation in China, 1950s–1970s Arunabh Ghosh; 10. Maximum asymmetry: hydropower, volume, and sovereignty in the Anthropocene Jerome Whitington; Part IV. Embodied Waters: 11. Hydrologies of the human body: from Euro-American medical hydrology to Indo-Gandhian hydrotherapeutics (1830–1950) James L. Wescoat; 12. From miasmatic Qi to air-conditioning sickness: humidity and health in Chinese history Chris Courtney; 13. Trust in science, trust in nature: drinking water in Singapore and the United States Martha Kaplan; Part V. Cosmologies and Power: 14. Knowing the moods of the Gods: spectral flows and moral hydro-ecology in village sacred groves of monsoon Asia Chris Coggins; 15. The hydrosphere and the modern cosmopolis: sovereign enchantment and the transformation of the Indus basin David Gilmartin; 16. Fins in the inland ocean and the river as pulse in monsoon Asia Rohan D'Souza; Epilogue: well beyond Wittfogel, reflections on human histories in the hydrosphere James L. Wescoat; Index.

'This superb collection commits to water as both pathway and paradigm for rethinking colonial and cultural histories, and environmental knowledge writ large—from ancient currents to climate-changed cosmologies. The Hydrosphere of Monsoon Asia is a powerful, careful work of interdisciplinary scholarship.' Jeremy Schmidt, Queen Mary University of London