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