Profits of Nature - Colonial Development Quest for Resources in Nineteenth Century China

Peter B. Lavelle uses the life and career of the statesman Zuo Zongtang as a lens to explore the environmental history of nineteenth-century China. The Profits of Nature offers a new approach to understanding the dynamic relationship between imperial crisis, natural resources, and colonial development during a critical juncture in Chinese history.

List of contents

Conventions and Measures
Introduction
1. Agriculture in an Era of Crisis
2. Geography in a Growing Empire
3. Reclaiming the Land
4. Promoting Profitable Crops
5. Water in a Fertile Frontier
6. Sericulture in a Colonial Borderland
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Chinese Terms
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Peter B. Lavelle is assistant professor of history at Temple University.

Summary

Peter B. Lavelle uses the life and career of the statesman Zuo Zongtang as a lens to explore the environmental history of nineteenth-century China. The Profits of Nature offers a new approach to understanding the dynamic relationship between imperial crisis, natural resources, and colonial development during a critical juncture in Chinese history.

Additional text

Profits of Nature is an outstanding work that sheds new light on nineteenth century Chinese efforts to manage both manmade and natural disasters through the adoption of new technologies in agriculture, forestry, and industry, in the process transforming the heartland and borderlands of the empire. Lavelle’s groundbreaking book is a welcome contribution for Qing historians, historians of science and technology, and environmental studies.

Product details

• Authors: Peter B. Lavelle
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 29.02.2020
• EAN: 9780231194709
• ISBN: 978-0-231-19470-9
• No. of pages: 304
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; China, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism, HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century, HISTORY / Asia / China, c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, Colonialism & imperialism, c 1500 onwards to present day, Colonialism and imperialism, Asian History, Chinese history