The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China by David A Pietz (review)

David A. Pietz makes clear in this book that the Yellow River is not just any river. According to the first sentence, it ceased even being a river when, "In 1997 the Yellow River dried up" (p. 1). From this stark start, the reader is carried on a detailed, fascinating, and important journey from the river's ancient historical significance as the body of water that is credited with giving birth to China's civilization to the present crisis of water scarcity. The Yellow River also is an engineering marvel. In long stretches, it is a hanging river, meaning it flows elevated above the land on either side propped up by the ancient technical ingenuity of dike construction. This unusual trait is the reason that the Yellow River is not only seen as the source of life in China, but also repeatedly has been the source of mass death. Dubbed "China's Sorrow," the river has offered the millions who have settled and farmed along its fertile banks the tragic pattern of repeated floods and periodic shifts in its course to the sea.

This history of the Yellow River is also a history of China, not just as it is carved in the landscape of the North China Plain, but in what it reveals about major national events and the relationships that tie the people to their government and land. At the same time, in pursuing these concurrent foci, Pietz is telling the story of water, humanity's efforts to "order the waters," and how China came to find itself in such a dire water crisis. Throughout the book, he underscores the important point that the Yellow River and history are entwined not only in the past, but also in the future. After this long and careful study, Pietz is able to advise anyone interested in tackling the ongoing desperate water problems of the North China Plain that "the enduring legacies of the physical setting and cultural patterns will shape the parameters of available options" (p. 3). I advise anyone interested in any of these issues to read this book.

There is much here for historians of technology to feast on, both in technology content and in historical context. The book is rich in maps and diagrams of various diking strategies over the centuries. Pietz includes extensive debates about silt and sluicing, dam designs, and the juxtaposition of scientific traditions—ancient Chinese and modern Western—which he finds in particular spots to be remarkably similar. Approximately one-quarter of the book is dedicated to the ancient and imperial eras. These are not merely background, but in some ways the most fascinating time periods and fundamental to Pietz's point that cultural traditions have longevity. In these early sections he demonstrates clearly the degree to which humans have changed the landscape long before mechanization, let alone modern industrialization.

This study highlights the tremendous emphasis that new nationalists placed on learning and importing modern Western science to early-twentieth-century China. In devoting the middle sections to the Mao era (1949–76), Pietz makes several important contributions to the literature on this era and to the history of science and technology. Beneath the broad-stroke characterizations of the Mao period, Pietz reveals the persistent presence of Soviet influence and soviet-like approaches to engineering (even if they weren't called such) well after the Sino-Soviet split. He also notes the emergence of a distinctively Maoist approach to industrial growth that was linked closely to water management.

The last section of the book grounds the rapid growth from the reform era to the present day in historical context with attention to pollution, climate change, food security, and, importantly, the interconnection of China's water problems and the rest of the world. It is a must read for graduate courses on environmental history or modern Chinese studies and also workable for a more...