The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany

by David Blackbourn

Overview

"Brilliantly conceived....[A] tour de force in historical writing."—Ian Kershaw

Majestic and lyrically written, The Conquest of Nature traces the rise of Germany through the development of water and landscape. David Blackbourn begins his morality tale in the mid-1700s, with the epic story of Frederick the Great, who attempted—by importing the great scientific minds of the West and by harnessing the power of his army—to transform the uninhabitable marshlands of his scattered kingdom into a modern state. Chronicling the great engineering projects that reshaped the mighty Rhine, the emergence of an ambitious German navy, and the development of hydroelectric power to fuel Germany's convulsive industrial growth before World War I, Blackbourn goes on to show how Nazi racial policies rested on German ideas of mastery of the natural world. Filled with striking reproductions of paintings, maps, and photographs, this grand work of modern history links culture, politics, and the environment in an exploration of the perils faced by nations that attempt to conquer nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393329995
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/17/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.88(h) x 1.22(d)

About the Author

David Blackbourn is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair of History Emeritus at Vanderbilt University. The author of seven books, including Marpingen: Apparitions of the Virgin Mary and The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany, he lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Table of Contents

List of Maps     ix
Preface     xi
Introduction: Nature and Landscape in German History     3
Conquests from Barbarism: Prussia in the Eighteenth Century     21
A Wilderness of Water and Marsh     21
The Lords and Masters of Nature     41
Colonists     50
Fields of Joy and Abundance     62
Paradise Lost?     69
The Man Who Tamed the Wild Rhine: Remaking Germany's River in the Nineteenth Century     77
The Bells of Pfotz     77
Tulla's Plan     85
Remaking the Upper Rhine     93
Winners and Losers     101
Golden Age: From the 1848 Revolution to the 1870s     121
The Jade Bay     121
Colonizing the Moors     144
The Triumph of the Steamship     161
Further Victories over the Powers of Nature     173
Dam-Building and Modern Times: From the 1880s to World War Two     189
In the Wonderland of Technology     189
Otto Intze: "Grand Master" of German Dams     198
Flood Protection, Navigation, and "White Coal"     211
With Mastery of the Water Comes the Opportunity for Conflict     220
The Impact on Environment and Landscape     228
Drowned Villages, Broken Dams     236
Race and Reclamation: National Socialism in Germany and Europe     251
A Gray-Dark Wilderness     251
Race, Reclamation, and Genocide     261
Conservation and Conquest     278
The Mystique of the Frontier and the "Wild East"     293
Indian Wars     303
Landscape and Environment in the Postwar Germanys     311
The Garden of Our Hearts: The "Lost Lands" in the East     311
The "Economic Miracle" and the Rise of Ecology     322
Implementing the Transformation of Nature in Germany     335
Epilogue: Where It All Began     347
List of Abbreviations     365
Notes     367
Bibliography     435
Illustration Credits     451
Index     453

Editorial Reviews

There have been numerous books chronicling Germany's development as a nation, but we think this landmark study by British historian David Blackbourn approaches the subject from an original and richly rewarding angle. The author claims that modern Germany is the result of three centuries of engineering regional water sources, a process of altering the landscape by "aquaforming." From Frederick the Great's Englightenment-inspired plans to cultivate and improve waterways to the Third Reich's obsession with imposing order on the chaos of nature, this important illustrated history weaves cultural, political, and environmental history into a mesmerizing read.

bn.com

A modern-day German magically transported back 250 years would barely recognize his own country, says Blackbourn, a professor of history at Harvard. Where today manicured fields, straight canals and windmills dominate, then the landscape was "[d]ark and waterlogged, filled with snaking channels half-hidden by overhanging lianas" and inhabited by mosquitoes, frogs, wild boar and wolves. Blackbourn investigates this remarkable feat of aquaforming as Germans sought to manacle nature by means of mammoth hydrological projects, from building dams to "remaking" the Rhine. The simple act of draining a marsh, Blackbourn points out, can be interpreted in multiple ways. Liberals saw in human mastery of the waters a shining instance of scientific rationalism-which could be applied to settling national conflicts. Conservatives thought that reclaiming marshland would provide Frederick the Great's regiments with an unimpeded line of march to the battlefront. The Nazis, too, perceived land reclamation as a duty for a "people without space." More recently, Greens have highlighted the downsides of water engineering (loss of biodiversity, pollution, overconsumption) even as its supporters trumpet its successes (free commerce, the end of malaria, control of flooding). The unique framing of Blackbourn's interpretation of German history and the lavish illustrations make this an engrossing read. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"Sublimely good...proves that just as profound an affinity exists between history—and the study of causes and effects—and water, which are at once both intricate and implacable."

The Economist

"David Blackbourn has written an entertainingly original history, rich in insights into man and nature and the German—in fact, the European—mind."

Mark Kurlansky