Tracing three thousand years of the human relationship with water and soil throughout the Yellow River basin and the consequences, at times disastrous, of the resulting ecological transformations, Ruth Mostern provides insight into patterns, transformations, and devastating ruptures throughout ecological history and offers profound conclusions about the way we continue to affect the natural systems upon which we depend.

Ruth Mostern is associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, where she is also director of the World History Center.