Water Management, Communities, and Environment

More so than in most other countries, water management was crucial in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era in this region, in which both man and the changing ecological conditions strongly affected the landscape. Striking is the enormous variation in solutions to the water threat. The authors in this Jaarboek voor Ecologische Geschiedenis primarily focus on the interaction between society and the environment: social-political and social-economic factors prove to explain why the solutions implemented were sometimes sustainable and sometimes not. The various case studies are introduced by Martin Reuss, a water management specialist from the United States, while the broader comparative perspective is provided by Andrew Wareham of Roehampton University, London.    

'De bundel laat zien dat er nog veel nieuwe inzichten te verkrijgen zijn door verder onderzoek: dat lijkt een open deur, maar zelfs in dit handjevol essays worden al een aantal 'vaste overtuigingen' op losse schroeven gezet en komen vragen naar boven die schreeuwen om beantwoording. (...) Zaken die nu nog maar zijdelings aan bod komen, maar een zelfstandig onderzoek waard zijn.' Drs. Fred Vogelzang in: Recensiebank HistorischHuis.nl

'This is a strongly interdisciplinary and coherent set of papers that succesfully integrates landscape, institutional and economic history, giving a landscape dimension to topics that are all to often discussed purely in terms of figures and statistics. It is well illustrated and well written throughout, and provides a fascinating insight into the people and institutions that have shaped this landscape.' Stephen Rippon in: Landscape History 29 (2007).