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Ruth Mostern, “The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History”


Dr. Philip Gooding (IOWC, McGill) welcomes Prof. Ruth Mostern (Pittsburgh) to discuss her 2021 book, The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History. They consider the river’s central role in Chinese history, moving water, sediment, people, and goods, along with the research and publication processes of environmental history.

Prof. Mostern is Professor in Pitt’s Department of History, where she teaches Chinese and world history and is Director of the World History Center. Her first book, Dividing the Realm in Order to Govern:  The Spatial Organization of the Song State (960-1276 CE), was published in 2011. Alongside the research project that lead to The Yellow River, she leads the World Historical Gazetteer project.

Links:

Book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300238334/the-yellow-river/

University Website: https://www.history.pitt.edu/people/ruth-mostern

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RuthMostern

The Indian Ocean World Podcast is hosted by Dr. Philip Gooding, produced by Sam Gleave Riemann, and published under the SSHRC-funded Partnership “Appraising Risk, Past and Present.”

Image credit: “黄河边的溶砂岩地貌” by 黄河山曲, via Wikimedia Commons