Yellow River

Ruth Mostern is associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is also director of the World History Center.

“A survey of three millennia, based on an innovative historical geographic-information system.”—Andrew Robinson, Nature, “Best Science Pick of the Week”“The author achieves the notable feat of telling this vast, complex history in a single readable volume.”—Christopher Ruane, Asian Affairs“The Yellow River is a thought-provoking contribution to environment history and, more specifically, Chinese river history.”—Pichamon Yeophantong, European Journal of East Asian StudiesWinner of the Joseph Levenson Prize (China, Pre-1900), sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies“No other scholar has produced such a systematic, comprehensive account of the long-term changes in the river’s function and structure. I consider it to be the definitive work on the topic of the Yellow River to date.”—Peter C. Perdue, author of China Marches West: The Qing Conquest of Central Eurasia“Ruth Mostern masterfully explores the ‘natural and unnatural’ impacts of the Yellow River. Her approach, emphasizing continuity and change over the longue durée, reveals a complex river that connects, dissects, transports, and displaces.”—David A. Pietz, author of The Yellow River: The Problem of Water in Modern China“This unique book is testimony to the great value of spatial analysis and digital approaches. Read it for methodological innovation and let that change how you study history, humanities, and beyond!”—Ling Zhang, author of The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048–1128“In her three-thousand-year history of the Yellow River, Ruth Mostern provides a genuinely new take, full of surprising insights, that makes compelling reading. A pioneering example of quantitatively informed environmental history.”—Valerie Hansen, author of The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World—and Globalization Began“An outstanding merger of science and history, giving us a deeper understanding of the long, often tragic history of efforts to manage the Yellow River and the land it flows through.”—Kenneth Pomeranz, author of The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy