From Morocco to Iran and the Black Sea to the Red, Water on Sand rewrites the history of the Middle East and North Africa from the Little Ice Age to the Cold War. As the first holistic environmental history of the region over the last half millennium, it shows the intimate connections between peoples and environments and how these relationships shaped political, economic, and social history in startling and unforeseen ways. Nearly all political powers in the region based their rule on the management and control of natural resources, and nearly all individuals were in constant communion with the natural world. To grasp how these multiple histories were central to the pasts of the Middle East and North Africa, the chapters in this book evidence the power of environmental history to open up new avenues of historical research and understanding. Water on Sand furthermore traces how the Middle East and North Africa deeply affected the global histories of climate, disease, trade, energy, environmental politics, ecological manipulation, and much more. Lying at the intersection of three continents and as many seas, the Middle East has obviously been central to world history for millennia. Studying the ecological implications of these global connections, both for the region itself and for the rest of the world, helps to bring the Middle East and North Africa into global history and to show how the region must be an essential part of any understanding of the environments of Eurasia over the last five hundred years. Deeply researched, globally comparative, and highly provocative, Water on Sand represents both a new kind of Middle Eastern history and a new kind of environmental history.
Alan Mikhail is Assistant Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History, which won the Roger Owen Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association and the Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication from Yale University.
Contributors:
- Jessica Barnes- Postdoctoral Associate, Yale Climate and Energy Institute and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
- Richard W. Bulliet- Professor of Middle Eastern History, Columbia University
- Diana K. Davis- Associate Professor of History, University of California, Davis.
- Suraiya Faroqhi- Professor of History, Istanbul Bilgi University
- Toby C. Jones- Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
- Arash Khazeni- Assistant Professor of History, Pomona College
- Karim Makdisi- Department of Political Studies and Public Administration, American University of Beirut (AUB)
- J.R. McNeill- University Professor, Georgetown University
- Alan Mikhail- Assistant Professor of History, Yale University
- Nancy Y. Reynolds- Assistant Professor of History, Washington University in St. Louis
- Sam White- Assistant Professor of History, Oberlin College
The book attempts to interpret the history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last half millennium from an environmental perspective. The authors all agree that humans and environment have been reshaping each other in their long-ter...
评分The book attempts to interpret the history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last half millennium from an environmental perspective. The authors all agree that humans and environment have been reshaping each other in their long-ter...
评分The book attempts to interpret the history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last half millennium from an environmental perspective. The authors all agree that humans and environment have been reshaping each other in their long-ter...
评分The book attempts to interpret the history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last half millennium from an environmental perspective. The authors all agree that humans and environment have been reshaping each other in their long-ter...
评分The book attempts to interpret the history of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last half millennium from an environmental perspective. The authors all agree that humans and environment have been reshaping each other in their long-ter...
这本书给我的感觉,就像是品尝一杯极其复杂的烈酒,初入口时被强劲的冲击力震慑,需要时间让酒精的灼烧感平息下来,才能真正体会到其后蕴含的层次和回味。语言的密度极高,几乎每一句话都承载了多重含义,这使得快速阅读成为一种奢望,你必须放慢脚步,像在解读古老的碑文一样,去揣摩每一个动词和形容词的选择。作者的文风冷峻而精确,没有多余的修饰,却能精准地击中情感的靶心。书中对于“等待”这一主题的探讨达到了新的高度,它展示了人类在漫长、无望的等待中,精神是如何被缓慢地腐蚀、重塑,最终形成一种新的、也许是扭曲的生存方式。我几乎能感受到那些角色身上背负的无形重担,那是历史、记忆和无法改变的命运交织而成的枷锁。相较于情节的跌宕起伏,这本书更侧重于氛围的营造和心理的剖析,如果你期待的是快节奏的动作场面,可能会感到失望。对我而言,它更像是一面镜子,映照出我们自身对确定性和意义的永恒追寻,以及在面对虚无时可能爆发出的微弱光芒。
评分我必须承认,我对这本书的初期观感是充满困惑的,仿佛拿到了一份加密的地图,急需找到正确的钥匙才能解读其中的纹理。叙事结构是其最大的特点,它毫不留恋地打乱了传统的时间线,将过去、现在甚至是一些模糊的预感碎片般地抛洒在读者面前。这种非线性的叙事手法,初看之下令人有些手足无措,但当你开始适应这种跳跃的节奏后,会发现它极大地增强了悬念和宿命感。作者似乎有意在阻碍我们形成一个完整的图像,而是让我们像考古学家一样,一块一块地拼凑出真相的全貌。尤其是在角色之间的对话部分,充满了潜台词和未尽之言,每一次看似平淡的交流背后,都蕴藏着巨大的张力,那是只有在长期压抑的环境下才会产生的微妙化学反应。我特别喜欢其中穿插的一些意象化的段落,它们如同突然出现的清泉,虽然短暂,却为灰白色的主调增添了一抹亮色,虽然那亮色本身可能也带着一丝苦涩。如果说有什么遗憾,那就是某些次要角色的动机描绘略显单薄,他们在推动情节发展中起到的作用似乎更多是功能性的,而非真正有血有肉的个体。
评分这本小说读起来就像是在烈日下行走,一开始你期待着一片绿洲,但很快就发现,周围只有无尽的沙丘和灼热的空气。作者对人物内心世界的刻画极其细腻,那种被困住、找不到出路的绝望感,仿佛能透过纸页渗透出来。我特别欣赏作者在叙事节奏上的把控,时而急促如奔跑,时而又缓慢得让人窒息,如同慢镜头回放那些关键的、无法挽回的瞬间。主角的每一次选择,都像是在细沙上画下一个注定会被风抹去的符号,充满了徒劳感。书中的环境描写更是达到了令人惊叹的地步,那些关于光线、温度和声音的细微感受被捕捉得淋漓尽致,让你不得不停下来,想象自己正身处那片干燥、荒凉的境地,口干舌燥。唯一让我略感不适的是,故事的结局处理得过于含蓄,虽然艺术性很高,但对于渴望一个明确答案的读者来说,可能需要花费大量时间去解读那最后几页隐藏的寓意。整体而言,这是一部挑战阅读习惯、但绝对值得深思的作品,它迫使你直面人性中最脆弱、最隐秘的角落,看完后需要很长时间才能将思绪从那片虚无中抽离出来。
评分我花了整整一周的时间才将这本书读完,并非因为篇幅冗长,而是因为我不得不时常合上书本,抬头望向窗外,试图让自己的思绪从那种压抑的氛围中解脱出来。这本书的叙事者声音具有极强的感染力,它带着一种近乎病态的、强烈的偏执感,让你不由自主地跟随他进入一个由他主导的现实。这种主观性极强的叙事,使得我们对事件的理解始终处于一种不稳定的状态——我们能相信叙述者所描述的一切吗?这种对“可靠性”的挑战,是本书最巧妙的设置之一。书中对于特定地点的描绘,比如某个废弃的建筑或者一片被遗忘的角落,已经超越了单纯的布景作用,它们成为了角色内心状态的具象化延伸,仿佛有生命一般,在呼吸,在影响着每一个靠近它的人。这种将环境与心理深度融合的处理手法,非常高明。不过,我发现本书在处理人际关系上的微妙之处稍显不足,某些关键性的情感转折,似乎缺乏足够的情感铺垫,显得有些突兀,像是为了推动某一特定哲学论点而不得不设置的桥段,而非自然发展的结果。
评分这部作品散发着一种古老的、令人不安的忧郁气质,仿佛是某个失落文明的残片。它成功地营造了一种“边界感”——物理上的、时间上的,更重要的是道德和认知上的边界。角色们似乎总是在徘徊在已知与未知、清醒与梦境的边缘地带,任何轻微的越界都可能带来毁灭性的后果。作者对“失落”和“记忆的不可靠性”进行了深刻的哲学探讨,不是通过枯燥的论述,而是通过角色们徒劳的搜寻和痛苦的回溯来展现。阅读过程中,我不断地被书中那些看似无关紧要的细节所吸引,比如某个物件的摆放位置,或者一段重复出现的旋律,它们像线索一样,暗示着更深层的、隐藏在表象之下的结构。这本书的节奏感非常独特,它拒绝迎合现代读者对效率的追求,坚持用一种近乎冥想的方式展开,每一页都需要被细细咀嚼。最终留给读者的,不是一个完整的答案,而是一系列更深刻、更迫切的问题,关于我们如何定义真实,以及我们愿意为了抓住那些转瞬即逝的“真实感”付出何种代价。它绝对不是那种可以一目十行读完的书,它需要你投入时间,与它的幽暗共处。
评分中东北非环境史——米华健在十多年前写过有关新疆环境史的小论文,后来没声音了,感觉这里有好几篇都能拿来参考,不行了自己动手先收集点素材
评分environmental history这个角度很有意思
评分environmental history这个角度很有意思
评分environmental history这个角度很有意思
评分environmental history这个角度很有意思
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