The Hydrosphere of Monsoon Asia
Lives, Histories, Water
Will be published approx. on 30. November 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
350 pages
978-1-009-85630-0 (ISBN)
Description
This innovative collected work offers a new way of understanding history, society, and climate change by placing water at the center of human life. Focusing on monsoon Asia-home to nearly half the world's population-it explores how oceans, rivers, monsoons, and even humidity have shaped cultures, economies, politics, and everyday survival for centuries. Bringing together historians, anthropologists, geographers, and environmental scholars, the volume connects local waterscapes to global Earth systems, showing how human actions now reshape the hydrological cycle with planetary consequences. Through vivid case studies ranging from river basins and coastal cities to bodies, beliefs, and technologies, the book reveals water as both a life-giving force and a source of risk, power, and conflict. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core.
Reviews / Votes
'This superb collection commits to water as both pathway and paradigm for rethinking colonial and cultural histories, and environmental knowledge writ large-from ancient currents to climate-changed cosmologies. The Hydrosphere of Monsoon Asia is a powerful, careful work of interdisciplinary scholarship.' Jeremy Schmidt, Queen Mary University of London 'This vibrant collection of essays provides an exciting set of insights into water and human culture across Asia. The Hydrosphere of Monsoon Asia is a landmark contribution that will resonate across multiple disciplines.' Matthew Gandy, University of Cambridge 'This treasure trove of new scholarship on the waterscapes of Asia addresses enduring questions about political power, agrarian and urban economies, and cultural practices, through our present prism of climate change. Its remarkable scale, variety, and depth makes this volume a valuable companion for students of environmental history, geography, and anthropology.' Amita Baviskar, Ashoka UniversityMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-85630-0 (9781009856300)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 11/2026
Cambridge University Press
€136.18
Not yet published
Persons
Prasenjit Duara is Oscar Tang Family Distinguished Professor of East Asian Studies at Duke University. James L. Wescoat, Jr. is Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Geography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Content
Introduction. Aqueous lives in terrestrial spheres Prasenjit Duara; Part I. Oceans and Terraqueous Activity: 1. Toward a macro historical geography of lives and histories in the hydrosphere of monsoon Asia James L. Wescoat; 2. Japanese history in hydrological dimensions Jonas Rueegg; 3. Terraqueous work and oceanic temporalities Nadin Hee; Part II. Ocean Coasts: 4. Typhoons between time: experiencing and understanding the hydrosphere through storms Clark Alejandrino; 5. Port cities, the ocean, and the hydrosphere Sunil Amrith; 6. Speculative geographies and hydrological realities: a coastal stretch in Western India Chandana Anusha; Part III. Terrestrial Waters: 7. A shatterzone on an ecotone: spatial and political ecologies of erosion at the periphery of the monsoon hydrosphere Ruth Mostern and Raorao Su; 8. Sediment continuity and developing 'whole basin' measures to address Mekong delta subsidence G Mathias Kondolf; 9. Small hydropower and region formation in China, 1950s-1970s Arunabh Ghosh; 10. Maximum asymmetry: hydropower, volume, and sovereignty in the Anthropocene Jerome Whitington; Part IV. Embodied Waters: 11. Hydrologies of the human body: from Euro-American medical hydrology to Indo-Gandhian hydrotherapeutics (1830-1950) James L. Wescoat; 12. From miasmatic Qi to air-conditioning sickness: humidity and health in Chinese history Chris Courtney; 13. Trust in science, trust in nature: drinking water in Singapore and the United States Martha Kaplan; Part V. Cosmologies and Power: 14. Knowing the moods of the Gods: spectral flows and moral hydro-ecology in village sacred groves of monsoon Asia Chris Coggins; 15. The hydrosphere and the modern cosmopolis: sovereign enchantment and the transformation of the Indus basin David Gilmartin; 16. Fins in the inland ocean and the river as pulse in monsoon Asia Rohan D'Souza; Epilogue: well beyond Wittfogel, reflections on human histories in the hydrosphere James L. Wescoat; Index.