Mao's war against nature : politics and the environment in Revolutionary China / Judith Shapiro.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shapiro, Judith, 1953- author.

Series:

Studies in environment and history.

Studies in environment and history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental policy--China--History--20th century.

Environmental policy.

Environmental degradation--China--History--20th century.

Environmental degradation.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 287 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Judith Shapiro, in clear and compelling prose, relates the great, untold story of the devastating impact of Chinese politics on China's environment during the Mao years. Maoist China provides an example of extreme human interference in the natural world in an era in which human relationships were also unusually distorted. Under Mao, the traditional Chinese ideal of 'harmony between heaven and humans' was abrogated in favor of Mao's insistence that 'People Will Conquer Nature'. Mao and the Chinese Communist Party's 'war' to bend the physical world to human will often had disastrous consequences both for human beings and the natural environment. Mao's War Against Nature argues that the abuse of people and the abuse of nature are often linked. Shapiro's account, told in part through the voices of average Chinese citizens and officials who lived through and participated in some of the destructive campaigns, is both eye-opening and heartbreaking.

Contents:

Introduction

Population, dams, and political repression: a story of two environmental disasters and the scientists who tried to avert them

Deforestation, famine, and utopian urgency: how the Great Leap Forward mobilized the Chinese people to attack nature

Grainfields in lakes and dogmatic uniformity: how "Learning from Dazhai" became an exercise in excess

War preparations and forcible relocations: how factories polluted the mountains and youths "opened" the frontiers

The legacy.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-268) and index.

ISBN:

1-107-12038-1

1-281-71691-X

9786611716912

0-511-40973-7

0-511-40840-4

0-511-41027-1

0-511-40709-2

0-511-51206-6

0-511-40882-X

OCLC:

476162777