Confluence: The Nature of Technology and the Remaking of the Rhône

by Sara B. Pritchard

Because of its location, volume, speed, and propensity for severe flooding, the Rhône, France’s most powerful river, has long influenced the economy, politics, and transportation networks of Europe. Humans have tried to control the Rhône for over two thousand years, but large-scale development did not occur until the twentieth century. The Rhône valley has undergone especially dramatic changes since World War II. Hydroelectric plants, nuclear reactors, and industrialized agriculture radically altered the river, as they simultaneously fueled both the physical and symbolic reconstruction of France.

In Confluence , Sara B. Pritchard traces the Rhône’s remaking since 1945. She interweaves this story with an analysis of how state officials, technical elites, and citizens connected the environment and technology to political identities and state-building. In the process, Pritchard illuminates the relationship between nature and nation in France.

Pritchard’s innovative integration of science and technology studies, environmental history, and the political history of modern France makes a powerful case for envirotechnical an approach that highlights the material and rhetorical links between ecological and technological systems. Her groundbreaking book demonstrates the importance of environmental management and technological development to culture and politics in the twentieth century. As Pritchard shows, reconstructing the Rhône remade France itself.

392 pages, Hardcover

First published April 4, 2011

Reviews

[Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of interesting ideas and ways of approaching envirotechnical development in a major river, but good god this was a dry read even for an academic book. Good for thoughts, not great for reading

[Iris Shu · Rating 2 out of 5]

the introduction is a Beast to read. i don't understand why she did that. chapters 2 and 6 are fine to read but seem incomplete. maybe because i didn't finish the book, but regardless