Ordered and received!
Prof. Vipul Singh is with the Dept. of History, University of Delhi, and he writes in the acknowledgments section that environmental history as a formal subject of study in history departments had a late start in India. The focus of the book is the flat lands of Bihar with its annual floods and shifting river channels and how Mughal and later British land use policies transformed the people's relationship with the river system. Looks like a very meaty book with plenty of Notes, Maps and a long Reference section. Will be sharing interesting snippets as I read along.
As one blurb says... "Perfect to pop into your pocket for spare moments". A fine introduction by Jamie Woodward. The recognition that the earth has passed through several glacial and interglacial phases is really a triumph of field geology. Thick sedimentary deposits in Europe and N. America were recognized as being left behind by advancing ice sheets. The stellar role played by geologists in the mid-late 1800's and their debates grounded within the prevailing schools of catastrophism versus uniformitarianism is highlighted. And there are good succinct sections on the many modern theoretical advances in climate science and the techniques that geologists and climate scientists bring to bear upon understanding the mode and tempo of climate change.
Happy Reading.
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