The Environment and World History Book

List of Figures, Maps, and Tables ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Part one Overview

1 Introduction: World History and Environmental History Kenneth Pomeranz 3

2 The Big Story: Human History, Energy Regimes, and the Environment Edmund Burke III 33

3 Toward a Global System of Property Rights in Land John F. Richards 54

Part two Rivers, Regions, and Developmentalism

4 The Transformation of the Middle Eastern Environment, 1500 B.C.E.-2000 C.E. Edmund Burke III 81

5 The Transformation of China's Environment, 1500-2000 Kenneth Pomeranz 118

6 The Rhine as a World River Mark Cioc 165

7 Continuity and Transformation: Colonial Rice Frontiers and Their Environmental Impact on the Great River Deltas of Mainland Southeast Asia Michael Adas 191

Part three Landscapes, Conquests, Communities, and the Politics of Knowledge

8 Beyond the Colonial Paradigm: African History and Environmental History in Large-Scale Perspective William Beinart 211

9 Environmental Histories of India: Of States, Landscapes, and Ecologies Mahesh Rangarajan 229

10 Latin American Environmental History: A Shifting Old/New Field Lise Sedrez 255

11 The Predatory Tribute-Taking State: A Framework for Understanding Russian Environmental History Douglas R. Weiner 276

Select Bibliography 317

List of Contributors 337

Index 339