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The King's Harvest
A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire (Yale Agrarian Studies Series)

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Format
Hardback, 320 pages
Published
United States, 1 November 2021

A multidisciplinary environmental history of early China’s political systems, featuring newly available Chinese archaeological data

This book is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China’s early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the transformation of lowland North China’s landscapes from diverse forests and steppes to farmland. He argues that the growth of states in ancient China, and elsewhere, was based on their ability to exploit the labor and resources of those who harnessed photosynthetic energy from domesticated plants and animals. Focusing on the state of Qin, Lander synthesizes abundant new scientific, archaeological, and excavated documentary sources to argue that the human domination of the Guanzhong region, and the rest of the planet, was based on the development of complex political structures that managed and expanded agroecosystems.


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HK$250
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HK$288.49
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Product Description

A multidisciplinary environmental history of early China’s political systems, featuring newly available Chinese archaeological data

This book is a multidisciplinary study of the ecology of China’s early political systems up to the fall of the first empire in 207 BCE. Brian Lander traces the transformation of lowland North China’s landscapes from diverse forests and steppes to farmland. He argues that the growth of states in ancient China, and elsewhere, was based on their ability to exploit the labor and resources of those who harnessed photosynthetic energy from domesticated plants and animals. Focusing on the state of Qin, Lander synthesizes abundant new scientific, archaeological, and excavated documentary sources to argue that the human domination of the Guanzhong region, and the rest of the planet, was based on the development of complex political structures that managed and expanded agroecosystems.

Product Details
EAN
9780300255089
ISBN
030025508X
Other Information
26 b-w illus.
Dimensions
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.5 centimeters (0.47 kg)

About the Author

Brian Lander is assistant professor of history at Brown University and a fellow of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.

Reviews

Winner of the James Henry Breasted Prize, sponsored by the AHA

“Over four thousand years of unsustainable growth, Chinese states replaced a diverse ecosystem with a monocropping grain state. All states destroy environments, but only the state can save us. So ancient China’s spectres still haunt our modern crisis. A brilliant and disturbing analysis!”—Peter C. Perdue, author of Environmental History in China and the West: Its Origins and Prospects (in Chinese)

“The King’s Harvest is an extraordinary achievement that makes a unique contribution to Chinese history, environmental history, and the history of agriculture.”—Ruth Mostern, author of The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History

“The King’s Harvest is based on exceptionally sound scholarship, reflecting Brian Lander’s grasp of the most cutting-edge approaches to environmental history and early Chinese history.”—Micah S. Muscolino, author of The Ecology of War in China

“Brian Lander has written a richly detailed, engaging, and eminently readable masterpiece of environmental history, interweaving archaeological and textual evidence from Ancient China to demonstrate that ‘Geopolitics are always environmental politics.’”—Rowan Flad, coauthor of Ancient Central China

“Brian Lander’s book boldly builds upon K. C. Chang’s Archaeology of Ancient China and Mark Elvin’s Retreat of the Elephants, providing one plausible explanation for agricultural innovations spurring vast sociopolitical changes. I will assign it.”—Michael Nylan, author of Chang’an 26 BCE: An Augustan Age in China

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