Book ID: CBB173163059

Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia's Aral Sea Basin (2019)

unapi

Peterson, Maya Karin (Author)


Cambridge University Press


Publication Date: 2019
Edition Details: Book Series: Studies in Environment and History
Physical Details: 416
Language: English

The drying up of the Aral Sea - a major environmental catastrophe of the late twentieth century - is deeply rooted in the dreams of the irrigation age of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a time when engineers, scientists, politicians, and entrepreneurs around the world united in the belief that universal scientific knowledge, together with modern technologies, could be used to transform large areas of the planet from 'wasteland' into productive agricultural land. Though ostensibly about bringing modernity, progress, and prosperity to the deserts, the transformation of Central Asia's landscapes through tsarist- and Soviet-era hydraulic projects bore the hallmarks of a colonial experiment. Examining how both regimes used irrigation-age fantasies of bringing the deserts to life as a means of claiming legitimacy in Central Asia, Maya K. Peterson brings a fresh perspective to the history of Russia's conquest and rule of Central Asia.

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Reviewed By

Review Catherine Bonier (July 2020) Review of "Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia's Aral Sea Basin". Environmental History (pp. 558-559). unapi

Review Artemy M. Kalinovsky (2021) Review of "Pipe Dreams: Water and Empire in Central Asia's Aral Sea Basin". American Historical Review (pp. 241-243). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB173163059/

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Authors & Contributors
Giuliano Pinto
Alberto Malvolti
Alvise Fiume
Bonan, Giacomo
Andrea Zagli
Bickers, Margaret A.
Concepts
Water
Water resource management
Agriculture
Drainage; irrigation
Environmental sciences
Environmental history
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
Early modern
18th century
17th century
16th century
Places
Italy
United States
Australia
Tuscany (Italy)
Türkmenistan
Russian Empire
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