Yangtze: Nature, History, and the River

by Oscar Gross Brockett and Lyman Van Slyke

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201088940
• ISBN13: 9780201088946
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An excellent cultural yet geographic-centric view of China

The author describes and analyzes the whys and wherefores that the Yangtze River has influenced both ancient and modern Chinese civilization. There are 11 chapters covering 3 main sections covering geography, cultural history, and western explorers and 3 Gorges Dam plans. The middle chapters cover a Westerner's approach in analyzing why people and metropolises located in the space that they do. His book's structure was by emulating Braudel's work on the Mediterranean some 40 years earlier (which I haven't read). vanSlyke's book covers geography, geology, plate tectonics, earthquakes, climate, weather, history and culture. He also has vignettes on unusual livelihoods, such as how it was to be a tracker towing boats upstream. Included is what's it like being a rice, silk, or tea merchant. In Chap 8, he discusses the whys on junk boat design which is specifically made to negotiate the treacherous gorges enroute to Chongqing and Chengdu. In Chap 10, he shows the strategic importance of the Yangtze River from medieval through modern times. The last chapter 11 talks about the future, the 3 Gorges Dam and Southern Waters North projects. As an armchair traveler, the author and you can analyze the whys and wherefores before visiting China. For example, I've always wondered why the capital, Beijing, is located in north China? It is in there on p67, 71. Another question, why is the Yellow River rarely spoken about in the media compared to the Yangtze? It is in there on p12. Why is flooding (China's sorrow) so devastating where millions died, yet flooding of rice paddies is the source of life? It is in there on p12, 68, 89. Although this slim book is 16 years old, I learned much more with vanSlyke's book than Simon Winchester's Yangtze river (1998) book. vanSlyke's book incites the reader to ask many rhetorical and pedagogical questions about China that the natives don't even know or ponder about. While this book could be considered as a China traveler's supplement, it doesn't show or discuss any modern alternative routes, such as via highways and rail. Maps and city names often have to be translated from W-G to modern Pinyin Chinese, which adds confusion. Bought this book for cheap during a pre-holiday sale in the used book section of a major local bookseller. Liberally illustrated with 46 maps, diagrams, pixs, etchings, artwork, and a table, this book makes it easier to understand the layout and lore of the Yangtze River valley, its inhabitants, and results of Western explorers. It has an ineffective 5 1/2-page index but a good annotated 6-page bibliography. There are several excerpted poems about the river, including Mao's. While reading this book, I couldn't help drawing an analogy to our Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam (which the author doesn't), the California aquaducts from Northern CA for irrigation, and Colorado river aquaducts to the LA and San Diego metro area and Imperial River valley. He goes over the cost benefits ratio and the bickering over