In Praise of Floods: The Untamed River and the Life It Brings

by James C. Scott

James C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit
 
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year
 
“Informative, enjoyable, and provocative. . . . Scott’s [prose] is dry, clear, and scalding with moral purpose.”―Becca Rothfeld, Washington Post
 
Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea; they move both gradually and violently; they can teem (usually) with life; they may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed and even murdered.
 
It is the annual flood pulse―the brief time when the river occupies the floodplain―that gives a river its vitality, but it is human engineering that kills it, suppressing the flood pulse with dams, irrigation, siltation, dikes, and levees. In demonstrating these threats to the riverine world, award-winning author James C. Scott examines the life history of a particular river, the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) of Burma, the heartland and superhighway of Burman culture.
 
Scott opens our understanding of rivers to encompass their entirety―tributaries, wetlands, floodplains, backwaters, eddies, periodic marshlands, and the assemblage of life forms dependent on rivers for their existence and well-being. For anyone interested in the Anthropocene and the Great Acceleration, rivers offer a striking example of the consequences of human intervention in trying to control and domesticate a natural process, the complexity and variability of which we barely understand.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature, History, Ecology, Environment, Geography, Science

220 pages, Hardcover

First published February 25, 2025

About the author

James C. Scott was an American political scientist and anthropologist specializing in comparative politics. He was a comparative scholar of agrarian and non-state societies, subaltern politics, and anarchism.

Reviews

[Zack Clemmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a big riverine ecosystem guy now.

Genuinely so good, such an enjoyable experience. Category expanding, academically generous. Love a renowned scholar who gets to just do what he wants; when the dolphins started talking—just gold.

I’m way more comfortable with anthropocentrism than Scott, but in the good way that wants human dominion to demonstrate about 100x more of the humility and attention which he puts in here.

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

'In Praise of Floods' may seem a slightly discordant title for a book in the aftermath of, well some very bad floods. The Texas Hill Country disaster of July 4, 2025 being the most recent and among the most horrific in many years. Yet the list of impactful and 'devastating' floods is long and is perhaps getting longer, though our collective memories are not very good. The Yellow River flood of 1887 killed anywhere between 900,000 and 2 million, and 1931 floods in China up to 4 million. According to NOAA it is not the case that flooding in the U.S. has gotten more deadly for humans over the past 40 years, of course other factors such as warnings and communication have played a big role in that. Yet there are undeniably some unsettling trends, certainly this summer!

James C. Scott was apparently a 'renowned' political scientist and anthropologist, but with little background in anything like hydrology, geomorphology or even environmental biology. But he was clearly a very intelligent individual with a Yale professorship and numerous well-regarded books to his credit in his chosen fields. This slim volume lays out the benefits of flood waters (for all life) succinctly and wonderfully with numerous diagrams and maps, though some a bit hard to see. Scott uses the Irawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River basin in Myanmar (Burma), where had spent considerable time in his life, to demonstrate both the natural functioning of a riverine system and the impacts of human intervention. The Irawaddy (I have to still call it that) is a complex monsoon-driven system and an effective teaching tool and incredibly depressing discussion at the same time. Interestingly, the ongoing civil war in Burma may have done more to help the environment than any Earth Day protests, as several major dam projects (most notably the Myitsone Dam) have been shelved for the time being amidst the chaos.

His analysis of the iatrogenic effects of flood control and the analogy to the overuse of antibiotics in medicine (p. 181) is brilliant. The increasingly frantic effort to eliminate all floods (illnesses) no matter how insignificant, in the long run practically guarantees floods (and drug resistant microbes) of a more catastrophic nature in the future. Wherever a flood finally defeats the complex of levees, floodwalls, and dams the results are far worse than if nothing had ever been done, and the same thing for drug overuse. The intervention to suppress Covid-19 with experimental vaccines may offer a similar parallel. More important than the sole problems of Homo Sapiens, Scott makes a powerful case for the moral (and practical) need to consider all the other life forms dependent on rivers, flooding and water availability in general. He briefly summarizes (p. 183-84) the stunning impact of our relentless focus on ourselves to the exclusion of all other living things (except perhaps for a few 'cute' species) when it comes to water. Destroying freshwater habitat such as wetlands (he calls it the 'war to exterminate mud') has done immeasurable damage to the countless species that depend on the natural functioning of the hydrologic cycle and likewise with the effort to confine rivers to man-made channels. He mentions how this results in 'The Great Drying' a term used by Ellen Wohl and other environmental scientists (several of whom I have added to the TBR list!).

I suppose these will serve as the last public words of James C. Scott who passed away in 2024, before even the copyright on this short but powerful work. I think he would be proud of the result--4.5 stars, rounded up.

[Léonie Galaxie · Rating 5 out of 5]

James C. Scott has left us with a remarkable posthumous work that serves as a fitting capstone to a distinguished scholarly career dedicated to challenging conventional wisdom. This provocative study of rivers and flooding demonstrates the same intellectual fearlessness that characterized Scott's groundbreaking contributions to political science, offering readers a fundamentally new way of thinking about one of humanity's most feared natural phenomena.

What makes this book exceptional is Scott's bold reframing of flooding from an anthropocentric disaster to a natural process essential for ecological health. His insight that a flood represents "just the river breathing deeply, as it must" transforms our understanding of what we typically view as catastrophe into something more complex and necessary. This perspective shift—from seeing floods as purely destructive to recognizing their role in natural systems—exemplifies Scott's genius for revealing the limitations of human-centered thinking.

The book's analysis of human intervention in river systems provides particularly valuable insights into the unintended consequences of technological solutions. Scott's documentation of how dams and levees, while reducing frequent flooding, actually create conditions for more catastrophic floods when barriers are breached, offers crucial lessons for environmental policy and urban planning. His research reveals the paradox that our attempts to control nature often make us more vulnerable to its forces.

Perhaps most profoundly, Scott's observation that "the more civilized you are, the less resilient you are" captures essential wisdom about the trade-offs inherent in human development. This insight extends far beyond river management to illuminate broader questions about sustainability, technological dependence, and our relationship with natural systems. As a final contribution from one of our most important social scientists, this book offers both practical wisdom about flood management and deeper philosophical insights about humanity's place in the natural world.

[Ben Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final foray of James C Scott, one of the most interesting writers of his generation.

The book itself is fairly limited in its material. I would love to have seen more on the individual Burmese communities built around the Ayeyarwardy river, their beliefs, especially those regarding ‘nats’, and the impact ‘high modernist’ approaches to ‘taming’ the river have affected their community structures, or forced them into practices that are in contrast to prior thinking on their relationship with the river. There are suggestions that this process may be occurring, with comparisons between the older fishing practices that would allow smaller fish back into the river compared to the contemporary use of more destructive techniques such as finer nets, electricity and explosives. This lack of detail or exploration isn’t the fault of James C Scott, Civil War in Burma and his own illness and unfortunate passing meant that the scope of the work is significantly reduced. However, out of this limitation comes some of his most interesting writing in favour of his non-anthropocentric perspective.

His work has always been a pleasure to read and a real antidote to contemporary economics driven ‘cost-benefit analysis’ esque views that fail to consider humans and human needs as part of their own wider environment. This work is certainly no exception to Scott’s writing style, it forces you to think of rivers as a living, breathing being. Aspects of rivers that from our own anthropocentric view we would see as undesirable, such as a flood, are instead presented as the core of our own survival and continued relationship with rivers (floods being seen as the equivalent of a river breathing deeply) as well as the source of huge amounts of biodiversity. It helps to break apart the idea of a river as a utility whilst also explaining what makes a river a utility.

The book doesn’t achieve the minutiae of Ruth Mostern’s ‘The Yellow River’, however, it presents a perspective that is far more scientifically embedded than Mark Elvin’s pioneering but limited ‘The Retreat of the Elephants’ (I mention both of these authors as they have had a very clear influence this specific work).

Overall, the very limitations James C Scott faced in researching this work have led to some of his most interesting, witty and thoughtful writing. Its accessible prose (which is a welcome addition to most of James C Scott’s work) makes this an essential introduction for new readers to his fascinating and highly important perspective to new readers. There is truly something for everyone in the work of James C Scott, many of his arguments concern all of us, regardless of specialism. It is a given that his work will continue to remain important in the way we understand our relationship with our environment and one another. It will be the question of the next century whether this importance will be as an early warning (an annoying ‘I told you so’) or a significant drop in the ocean that was required to change our thought on our relationship with the environment.

[Mick de Waart · Rating 3 out of 5]

After learning Scott passed away last year I was surprised about this posthumously published book. Since ‘Seeing Like a State’ is without a doubt one of my favourite books, I didn’t hesitate picking up his last publication.

‘In Praise of Floods’ obviously carries Scott’s fingerprints. There’s some illuminating passages throughout the book and Scott’s unique outlook on the world can be sensed while reading the book. Reading it felt as a final goodbye to the author and as such I enjoyed reading it.

It must be said however, that this is nowhere near his best work. As Scott himself admits in the introduction his circumstances didn’t allow him to research the book as he normally would and, unfortunately, it shows. While the book carries interesting ideas that I’m sure Scott would have been able to substantiate like no one else could during his better days, this book misses such depth.

By no means a bad book, but unfortunately not a book that lives up to its full potential.

[Annie Jabs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure how I keep stumbling upon James C. Scott’s books (picked this up off a table in DC) but it’s been interesting to dive into near primary sources for agrarian studies.

This book focuses on rivers and, specifically, the harmful, paradoxical, and to some degree “iatrogenic” effects of human intervention on waterways and floodplains throughout the Anthropocene. It further narrows in on the Ayeyarwady River of Burma, with chapters dedicated to the negative consequences of engineered stasis, diversion, and pollution (agricultural and alluvial) on the ecosystem, with a unique chapter presented from the point of view of native riverine lifeforms. The takeaway is that the modern [state’s] aim of preventing all floods comes at the cost of laying the groundwork for more catastrophic floods (can replace “flood” with “fire” here).

Considering this book is still quite jargony, I’m glad it was short. There is separately some really great river literature and nonfiction out there, so this also served as a reminder that I’m overdue to read anything by Mark Twain.

[Yogesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

​The ultimate river manifesto​

'Seeing Like a State' has been on my to-read list for quite some time, but the compelling title, slim size, and posthumous publication of this book led me to pick it up first.

In this work, James Scott makes the reader appreciate that irrespective of what humans may think, river systems cannot be turned into highly engineered, optimized hydraulic machines. This was my biggest takeaway. Despite being an erudite academic, Scott ensures his long essay on rivers never becomes rigid or pedantic. Writing in lucid, unpretentious prose, he explains the natural tendencies of a river while showing how viewing nature strictly through an anthropocentric lens does grave injustice to non-human flora and fauna.

He laments how modern governance flattens living ecologies into bare commodities:​

"The river is reduced to water, just so much H_2O. That must be divided between rival claimants, and the claimants—they are in turn reduced to us, Homo sapiens. Gone are all the other beings in and around the river for whom the waterway is their indispensable life-world: fish, amphibians, reptiles, shellfish, waterbirds, wading birds, raptors, riverine mammals, insects, microbial life, and algae."​ ​

Scott's lifelong fascination with these landscapes was rooted in his early career. A Rotary Fellowship to Burma from 1958 to 1960 altered his trajectory, prompting a switch from law to political science and Southeast Asian studies. He spent decades traveling the region on a decrepit motorcycle, learning the language, and returning regularly during Burma's brief decade of openness between 2010 and 2020 before political borders closed once more.

The ​dynamics of ​rivers

Scott conceptualizes rivers as dynamic, living entities rather than static hydraulic channels:
​​

"Rivers, on a long view, are alive. They are born; they change; they shift their channels; they forge new routes to the sea. They move both gradually and violently. They teem, usually with life. They may die a quasi-natural death; they are frequently maimed, and even murdered. Each river, though subject to the same hydraulic laws, has its own unique personality." ​​

Left to its own devices, a river naturally shapes its course. As current slows near flat coastal plains, scouring material deposits on the bed: coarser gravel first, then sand, and finally fine silt. This sediment accumulation gradually elevates the riverbed until it blocks its own path, forcing the water to divert laterally, "jump" to a new bed, and carve fresh routes to the sea.

This winding tendency is measured by the Sinuosity Index (River Length divided by Valley Distance), where a ratio of 1.0 indicates a straight path, 1.0 to 1.5 a winding route, and 1.5 or higher a truly meandering channel. Early surveyors like George Everest famously recognized the futility of fixing such wandering waterways on static maps, cautioning that a cartographer could only ever hope to mark the outer limits within which a river might swing.

Rethinking ​flood​s

Scott reframes inundation not as a destructive catastrophe, but as an essential ecological pulse:​​

"“Flood” as a scare word is so deeply anthropocentric that I would be inclined always to qualify its use. Notwithstanding that flooding is, for humans, the most damaging of “natural” disasters worldwide, from a long-run hydrological perspective, it is just the river breathing deeply, as it must. On this view, we would regard the flooding of human settlements on the river’s floodplain as the result of Homo sapiens encroaching on the natural territory of the river—an act of “trespass.”"​​

Periodic floods are the very engine of aquatic and terrestrial productivity. Spreading water stimulates marsh vegetation, plankton, and insect blooms, providing a nutritional feast for spawning fish. As the waters recede, they deposit fresh silt ideal for annual grasses that sustain birds and grazing animals. For humans, too, river surfaces and floodplains have served as historic corridors of travel and social integration, connecting communities far more effectively than rugged terrestrial terrain.

​The thin and thick Anthropocene

Human intervention did not begin solely with modern industrial machinery. Scott traces this trajectory from the "Thin Anthropocene" (around 8000 BCE, when early agrarian societies began clearing floodplain forests for fixed fields and timber) to the "Thick Anthropocene" (post-1700 CE industrialization).

China's Yellow River illustrates the long history of this disruption. Centuries of deforestation and wetland drainage stripped the fragile loess soils, choking the river with silt, elevating its bed, and triggering violent course shifts and devastating floods that earned it the name "China's Sorrow." Today, this commodification has expanded to where even sediment pulses, sand, and riverbanks are sliced up and sold off.

The fifth chapter offers one of the book's most compelling moments by presenting an imaginative town hall where an endangered river dolphin speaks on behalf of non-human species. The dolphin points out that human conversations fixate solely on flood protection or commercial fish stocks, entirely ignoring the vast, invisible web of bottom feeders, copepods, and algae upon which the entire ecosystem depends.

​The ​illusion of ​control
​​

"The state simplifies natural landscapes to control them and extract revenue. While hunter-gatherers adapt to complex environments, early states strip nature down to a narrow selection of domesticated crops and animals. This concentration allows the state to appropriate resources easily. The process aims for permanent stasis and sharp boundaries, trying to eliminate natural "in-between" zones like mud or marshland."​​

This state-driven homogenization favoured above-ground cereals like wheat, barley, and maize because their synchronized ripening made them easy to inventory, harvest, and tax, unlike underground tubers. But uniform fields created fragile ecosystems vulnerable to blight.

A similar logic governs animal domestication and modern aquaculture. Quoting environmental historian Václav Smil, Scott highlights that the ratio of domesticated flesh (livestock and poultry) to wild flesh on Earth is now nine to one. Animals and fish are bred as single-commodity machines, optimized purely for rapid growth and confinement.

The ​futility of ​flood ​management

The institutional urge to bind rivers into static conduits inevitably produces severe backlash, as recognized in the historic 1928 Orissa Flood Committee report:​​

"Every square mile of country from which spill water is excluded means the intensification of floods elsewhere; every embankment means the heading up of water on someone else’s land. Orissa is a deltaic country and in such a country floods are inevitable; they are Nature’s method of creating new land and it is useless to attempt to thwart her in her working. The problem in Orissa is not how to prevent floods, but how to pass them as quickly as possible to the sea."​​

Attempting to suppress every flood functions like the overprescription of antibiotics. Heavy antibiotic use eliminates basic bacteria but cultivates resistant superbugs, prompting an escalating medical arms race. Similarly, constructing dikes and levees traps sediment within the channel, raising the riverbed higher than surrounding settlements. While small seasonal overflows are temporarily averted, the containment creates a false sense of security until a breach unleashes a far more catastrophic deluge.

Scott convincingly shows how humanity's attempts to convert rivers into obedient hydraulic machinery conflict with their innate need to meander, flood, and sustain rich biodiversity. Our hubris only delays the inevitable, setting up larger calamities while impoverishing the diverse species that depend on dynamic waterways.

He captures this vital ecological truth in a memorable pair of lines:​​

No mud, no lotus.
(Buddhist saying)

No flood, no river.
(James C. Scott)​​

[Chris Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every college freshman should be required to read this book. An eye opening read that starts a real discussion about a world wide issue.

If you live along the Mississippi River (or any river) or farm for a living, you should read this book.

The book is so much better articulated than the current day environmentalist over hyped propaganda. James C. Scott’s last work is one that will be read and studied for decades.

A civil, entertaining and enlightening look at our waterways, environment and inhabitants of this earth.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

James C. Scott is always dependable for his patient, thorough, and jargon-free style of scholarship, and this short book doesn’t disappoint on those counts. His point is this: the flood-pulse of rivers sustains a vast assemblage of intertwined life forms, some dependent on one another, some simply coexisting. Humans’ attempted regulation of normal seasonal flooding has been carried out for our supposed benefit but in complete ignorance of its destructive effects. In reality we are threatening the very systems upon which we depend for survival.

Scott delineates the cumulative degradation river ecosystems have sustained through the “Thin Anthropocene” (from the first Neolithic agricultural settlements through about 1750), and how this degradation was dramatically compounded during the “Thick Anthropocene” (from the Industrial Revolution to the present), a period in which, thanks to mechanization, rivers have been exponentially transformed into straightened dead canals for power extraction, transportation, and sewage evacuation. As an immediate result, fishing catches have dramatically decreased in the Irrawaddy and other large river basins, threatening the subsistence of millions. Longer-term consequences include erosion, the drying of soils, the disappearance of an entire riverine ecosystem of insects, birds and mammals, and increased vulnerability to destructive floods, even as smaller seasonal floods are contained.

It is a sobering account that offers little in the way of remediation. A more “experimental” chapter is written in the voice of the denizens of the Irrawaddy River, chief among them the Irrawaddy River Dolphin. It doesn’t quite “land” (pun intended), but it introduces the intriguing idea of extending democracy to non-human species. How might we give them a voice? Who counts as a political subject in a global ecological crisis?

[Harry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps more compelling for new entrants to the field, and particularly for those who haven't waded through this year's anodyne and soporific river-writing entry from Robert Macfarlane, but I didn't feel this was up to Scott's usual standard.

In Praise of Floods has all Scott's thoroughness, conscientious and unpretentious style and patient, coherent scholarship. It just doesn't have the same analytical heft or, dare I say it, significance as his earlier work.

Rivers are big and complex, Scott tells us. They're also highly variable, and trying to treat a river on our terms in our timescale when they operate on their own terms and in their own timescales is bad for us, for the river, and for everything else on the river too. Well, that's certainly true and seems to be worth saying. I've just been spoiled into expecting more ambition, more revolution, more anarchism from classic James C. Scott.

[Jeany Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

顧名思義，就是書名說的，讚美洪水，以及每一次漲退的土壤、生物、沉積物，地景的變化，等等。作者把這樣的系統稱作 waterscope。作者主張應該少用人類的干預來「整治」河流。

記得小時候有許多宣傳大有為的政府如何截彎取直，整治河流（基隆河、淡水河，等等），列為重大建設成果。時過境遷，現在多認為此種做法粗暴，弊多於利。

但這件事就超級難辦，我覺得可能等人類滅亡吧XDD

像他這本書也沒有真的要提出怎麼解決問題，可以說他只是要告訴大家「水利工程充分利用水資源」這個想法是沒救的，會有更多的副作用層出不窮。

本書把人類開始農業耕作視為「薄人類世」，工業化之後視為「厚人類世」。即使是薄人類世，黃河作為例子，就是一個人類干擾很大的例子。而農民定居在土地上，黃河（或任何河流）改道，就會造成災情。

而以較長的時間尺度來看，河流是必然會改道的，所以這不是難得一見的災害，而是必然會發生的事件。

如果把它作為常態，應該要順應這個狀況。像他有討論到一些傳統因應洪水的農作法，但時至今日，回歸這種做法可能性不高吧⋯（？）

本書有一部分講「納」的部分蠻有趣的，緬甸傳水庫和伊洛瓦底江有關的凡人，死後成為納。我覺得應該是陰神信仰？大部分都是怨靈，由於種種緣故死亡，受人祭拜。但看得出是初步的蒐集傳說的田野成果而已。作者有講到由於緬甸軍政府政變後關閉國界、不歡迎國際學者訪問調查，又碰上疫情，不知何時才再有機會做後續研究。加上作者年老，就算等的到開放可能也因為年齡及體力造成研究窒礙難行。因此在本書未能充分呈現他原來的想法。

不過我讀完全書，覺得略有點失望，感覺有點像半成品。不過作者其實在2024年9月去世，而本書原文出版已經是2025了。

從這個觀點來說，也還好他有大致完成本書吧。

[Melissa L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a very interesting take on the ecosystem of riverine systems. It certainly enhanced my understanding of the geography and culture of Myanmar as well. Now, unless you already had a solid understanding of geologic time scales and 300-level understanding of hydrological processes, this book would leave you at a complete loss. My favorite chapter was the one written from the POV of endangers species.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A river makes its path by flowing.”

Scott’s posthumous work extends his lifelong task of describing the impacts of domestication and state interference on the life world of various creatures and habitats (human and nonhuman alike) and is essential reading for anyone who must live to see the long term (and more immediate) consequences of the Thick Anthropocene.

[Emma Sotomayor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scott looks at the impact that humans have made on rivers, whether through damming, fishing, or pollution. Specifically, he examines the Ayeyarwaddy River in Burma, going through the lives of people who live on it, their legends, and the problems with interfering with the flooding of said river.

I picked up this book thinking it was about rivers in general. Instead, it seemed to be a meandering examination of one river in particular. Moreover, it didn't always seem to stay on-topic and the writing was dry and boring.

That being said, it offered an interesting perspective on how humans interact with rivers and the possibility that perhaps we shouldn't interfere with the changing river landscapes. I could get behind that, as I'm not partial to hideous dams that might end up draining valuable land and causing worse floods. However, still one star just because the writing was poor.

[Levi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was hard to get through at times, mostly because of the emphasis on the geography of Burma/Myanmar that I am largely unfamiliar with. That being said, I really appreciate a nonfiction book written with so much heart and excitement. I didn’t go into this expecting a perspective shift in the second to last chapter of the book but I’m glad that’s what I got.

[Kenneth Avery · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a reminder to government officials and the water resources engineers who work on river management projects that seek to optimize only human needs to the exclusion of the totality of the environmental needs. The result is usually a less robust, more fragile system that can fail in a big way, and result in iotropic effects (like a medicine's side effects).

[Javo Guajardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

De esos libros que no sabías que tenías que leer y llegan a ti por sorpresa. Me encantó la perspectiva cuenca que propone Scott, el pensar por ejemplo palabras cómo “inundación”, como lenguaje antroposcentista, cuándo en realidad es una cuenca respirando, el agua encontrando la tierra, y la vida que ahí se forma.

[andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating, at times melancholic, look into how rivers shape and are shaped by human society, along with all the denizens that live beside them. It talks about the at times catastrophic impacts of humans on their natural environment, particularly relating to the Ayeyarwady in Burma.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author has an excellent overview of the benefits of non-engineered rivers to the environment and non-human species, but his attempt to use examples from the Irrawaddy River in Bruma were frustrated by one coup or another shutting him out of the country. The result is disappointing.

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved "The Art of Not Being Governed," liked "Against the Grain," but this book just isn't anywhere as good as his other writings.

[Georgiana Gilgallon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of James C. Scott's works but this fell flat. There are glimmers of genius but on the whole it's slow, repetitive, and lacks focus.

[Madlyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5. Quirky! Gets a little textbooky at times but other times very much not. Does a good job of explaining complex things in a way that feel understandable.

[John Badger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, but pretty repetitive. Could have been condensed. Great images throughout

[Kyri Freeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely has its heart in the right place but so very dry and stilted in its writing that I couldn't get through it.

[James Oldcorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

'the owl of Minerva flies only at dusk' - a fascinating commentary on the damage of anthropogenic riverine engineering. Quite harrowing...bless those pink dolphins

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

RIP

[Marha · Rating 5 out of 5]

rip james c. scott, you were a real one

[Alex Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book's chapter structure and focus is really disjointed (as Scott recognizes), but materially it's brilliant. Absolutely essential reading. I see rivers fundamentally differently than before reading this.

[Niki Gajjar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really interesting information but the writing did not land for me at alllllll