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    The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China
    The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China
    The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China

    Written by Philip Ball

    Narrated by Derek Perkins

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. Water has been so integral to China's culture, economy, and growth and development that it provides a window on the whole sweep of Chinese history. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization.

    Water, Ball shows, is a key that unlocks much of Chinese culture. In The Water Kingdom, he takes us on a grand journey through China's past and present, showing how the complexity and energy of the country and its history repeatedly come back to the challenges, opportunities, and inspiration provided by the waterways. Drawing on stories from travelers and explorers, poets and painters, bureaucrats and activists, all of whom have been influenced by an environment shaped and permeated by water, Ball explores how the ubiquitous relationship of the Chinese people to water has made it an enduring metaphor for philosophical thought and artistic expression.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateApr 25, 2017
    ISBN9781541473041
    Author

    Philip Ball

    Philip Ball is a freelance writer and broadcaster, and was an editor at Nature for more than twenty years. He writes regularly in the scientific and popular media and has written many books on the interactions of the sciences, the arts, and wider culture, including H2O: A Biography of Water, Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour, The Music Instinct, and Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything. His book Critical Mass won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. Ball is also a presenter of Science Stories, the BBC Radio 4 series on the history of science. He trained as a chemist at the University of Oxford and as a physicist at the University of Bristol. He is the author of The Modern Myths. He lives in London.

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    Reviews for The Water Kingdom

    3.5/5

    19 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      An excellent and digestible overview of the history of China from the perspective of the overwhelming importance of its rivers and the state’s involvement in dealing with their power and impact on China’s geography and economy. A good introduction to understanding the roots of Chinese authoritarianism.
    • 3/5
      Very interesting. Very oriented towards a total beginnger in Asian history, was one of the best airplane books I ever picked up. Using water to frame the Chinese story - (water IS the Chinese story) was a creative way to digest thousands and thousands of years of history. Highly reccomend to the asian beginnger.