Growing up in Astoria, Oregon, I learned at a very young age just how much importance a river could have to a community. The Columbia was the heart of the town’s entire economy. From fishing and logging to recreation and tourism, nearly everything that happened in Astoria was connected to the river.
So when a copy of Prof. Lawrence C. Smith‘s new book Rivers of Power; How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizations, and Shapes Our World, I didn’t even need to read the publicity sheet that accompanied it telling me how important the subject was – my lived experience had already taught me the importance rivers can have.
However what I don’t yet know – and what I hope to learn from Prof. Smith’s work – is the larger history of rivers to peoples, cultures, and landscapes, not just of small Pacific Northwest fishing and logging towns but at an appropriate level of perspective for the entire world. I very much look forward to discovering how Prof. Smith has presented it all,
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