Preview
  • Rivers of Power

  • How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizations, and Shapes Our World
  • By: Laurence C. Smith
  • Narrated by: Victor Bevine
  • Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (21 ratings)

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Rivers of Power

By: Laurence C. Smith
Narrated by: Victor Bevine
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Publisher's summary

Rivers, more than any road, technology, or political leader, have shaped the course of human civilization. They have opened frontiers, founded cities, settled borders, and fed billions. They promote life, forge peace, grant power, and can capriciously destroy everything in their path. Even today, rivers remain a powerful global force - one that is more critical than ever to our future.

In Rivers of Power, geographer Laurence C. Smith explores the timeless yet underappreciated relationship between rivers and civilization as we know it. Rivers are of course important in many practical ways (water supply, transportation, sanitation, etc). But the full breadth of their influence on the way we live is less obvious. Rivers define and transcend international borders, forcing cooperation between nations. Huge volumes of river water are used to produce energy, raw commodities, and food. Wars, politics, and demography are transformed by their devastating floods. The territorial claims of nations, their cultural and economic ties to each other, and the migrations and histories of their peoples trace back to rivers, river valleys, and the topographic divides they carve upon the world. And as climate change, technology, and cities transform our relationship with nature, new opportunities are arising to protect the waters that sustain us.

Beautifully told and expansive in scope, Rivers of Power reveals how and why rivers have so profoundly influenced our civilization and examines the importance this vast, arterial power holds for the future of humanity.

©2020 Laurence C. Smith (P)2020 Recorded Books
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Great book about a topic rarely written about

The book does an amazing job of explaining rivers: the science behind their behavior; interesting histories of some of the major rivers of the world; humankind's interaction with them. I read this book because my husband is a fluvial geomorphologist and up until now, there is not a book that I know of that explains rivers to the layperson. The writing is excellent. There are memorable stories about The Nile, dam removal, dam building, hydropower, Steelhead trout. and more!

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2 people found this helpful