In Praise of Floods

“What a gift that, if we must lose James Scott, we at least gain his insights on rivers and the power of their unruliness. This book will reshape the world around you.”—Boyce Upholt, author of The Great River: The Making and Unmaking of the Mississippi   “With characteristic and subtle insight, James Scott challenges our preconceptions of what rivers are, arguing for a perspective including river species and landscapes as well as multiple time scales. Bold and original.”—Ruth Mostern, author of The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History “In this personal and engaging book, James Scott makes the provocative, big argument that we should live with floods. Agree with him or not, his ideas will settle in like a burr; and that is the charm of this book!”—David Biggs, author of Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam “In Praise of Floods explores international and holistic perspectives of rivers and floods. Using the Ayeyarwady River as a case study, James Scott illustrates how flooding can change landscapes, agricultural production, and responses to natural disasters as well as political upheavals.”—Alan P. Covich, University of Georgia “A good book teaches new knowledge. A great book opens new ways of seeing the world. In Praise of Floods is the latter, opening readers to new ways of thinking about rivers and, hopefully, new ethics for co-living with them.”—Ling Zhang, author of The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048–1128