Jeremy J. Schmidt is Assistant Professor of Geography at Durham University. He is the co-editor of Water Ethics: Foundational Readings for Students and Professionals.
"Watermakes a strong and compelling case that we have accepted for
far too long the perspective that water can be constructed only, or
primarily, as a resource."
*Environmental History*
"[An] ambitious, deeply researched, and thoughtful work of
interdisciplinary scholarship. . . establishes fascinating
connections between seeming dead ends in American intellectual
history and todays global socioenvironmental concerns."
*Journal of American History*
"I heartily recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the
nexus between ideas and water, writ large. It is an impressive and
incisive look into the minds of those who control a substance that
is essential to all forms of life."
*American Historical Review*
"Wide-ranging and incisive . . . Drawing on diverse conceptual
traditions, including anthropology, geography, geology,
environmental history and political philosophy, Schmidt traces the
co-evolution of water management and American liberalism. . . . I
found Schmidts book to be challenging, stimulating and instructive,
and I am sure it will quickly become core reading for anyone
interested in water and society."
*Water Alternatives*
"In showing how water resources are far from a neutral category,
this well researched and enlightening book is an important read for
understanding how we perceive water today."
*LSE Review of Books*
"Using history and the connection between humanity and geology,
this title offers readers a unique viewpoint on and an in-depth
understanding of water management."
*Choice*
"This is an important book on an important subject."
*Catholic Library World*
"Rather than focusing on the mundane, mirco-level materials that
shape water, Schmidt looks at the thoughts, values, and, most of
all, the philosophy behind water management... Ultimately, Schmidt
asks readers to rethink water’s role as a “neutral category” and
realize this resource is used to reinforce broader ways of thinking
and being in the world."
*Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics*
"Humans both consume too much water and fail to benefit from it
equitably. Geographer Jeremy Schmidt’s multidisciplinary study
shows how historical US approaches to water management have gained
global reach, leading to problematic biases."
*Nature*
"Jeremy Schmidt’s Water examines how these water worlds are
conceived by anthropological theory. A bold and remarkable book, it
offers a profound reassessment of central tenets within the
anthropology of water… The book is an intellectual history, but it
hews closer to science and technology studies than history of
science in its philosophical concerns and theoretical ambition. It
is required reading for anthropologists of water, as well as
geographers, conservationists, and others interested in the
management of water resources."
*PoLar Online*
"Water is a philosophy of water that intellectually challenges the
reader on many levels. Its core chapters present a fresh history of
ideas in the disciplines of geology, anthropology, and others that
have shaped modern water thought in the U.S. and beyond, from the
late-19th century culture of Washington DC civic scholars WJ McGee
and J.W. Powell to the pragmatism of 20th century water management
and 21st century global water agendas for the Anthropocene. It
frames and critically challenges that account with perspectives
from Wittgenstein and others as a liberal philosophy of water that
has become so widespread as to become what Schmidt calls 'normal
water.' His searching critique is not just about the philosophy of
water, it contributes to that philosophy in its ideas and
methods."
*James L. Wescoat, Jr. ,Aga Khan Professor, MIT*
"This sweeping, inter-disciplinary book is brilliant, refreshing
and bold. It asks two fundamental questions in which we should all
be interested: where have the ideas of water as a 'resource' to be
'managed' for the good of society or the nation come from? And how
have they driven world-wide economic development that has not
infrequently done more harm than good? The answers might surprise
you (spoiler alert: anthropology and philosophy had a lot to do
with the formation of this paradigm). This book is perhaps most
imaginative in the ways it aims to disrupt a way of thinking that
has dominated the anthropocene for far too long."
*Steven C. Caton,Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University*
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