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River histories: a thematic review

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Abstract

This review discusses contemporary river history literature of the past two decades. It presents an introduction to the evolution of river history literature and discusses its relation to the scholarly field of environmental history. The review argues that the study of river histories is increasingly sophisticated methodologically, particularly in interdisciplinary breadth and comparative approaches. This article concentrates on selected studies of European and North American rivers during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and discusses the recent literature on river histories within three thematic frames. First, this paper discusses the spatial dimensions and different spatial scales of river histories, especially rivers as connectors and dividers. The second theme presents three different types of power relations in human–river interaction. Third, this paper will touch upon the temporal questions of river biographies. This review will pay special attention to the growing literature addressing the attempts to re-establish environmentally sound human–riverine relationships and improve the status of rivers through restorative activities. This article shows that a thematic analysis of contemporary river history offers a fruitful frame to understand the complex and intertwined nature of the temporal, spatial, and power-related dimensions in the narratives.

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Notes

  1. Ackroyd’s (2007) colossal and multi-layered work on the “sacred river” Thames serves as a European example, while Talbott’s (2009) piece on the Hudson River shows how the readership of river histories is widened to new audiences, children in this case.

  2. Some monographs and edited volumes on river histories include more rigorous introductory or concluding chapters with reflections on conceptual and thematic choices and their methodological implications in the historiography (Mauch and Zeller 2008; Pritchard 2011; Castonguay and Evenden 2012a, b; Coates 2013). But they draw mainly on the work presented in the edited volumes in question or the thematic subfield of the respective book.

  3. I prefer the term field rather than discipline as a divergence from the institutional connotations of discipline. Scholarly field better includes the multiplicity of possible approaches and scholarly traditions applicable in environmental history, which, despite the flourishing scholarship, is still not an academically established discipline in many countries. See Huutoniemi et al. (2010). For the development of the field in general, see e.g. Hughes (2006).

  4. This dynamism is reflected in the amount of non-western river history publications. As a key contribution, Volume 1 in the Water History Series (Eds. Tvedt and Jakobsson 2006a) offers an extensive selection of river history cases from all inhabited continents, and predominantly from the non-western world. For the Latin American perspective, see Cleary (2001) for a review of the environmental history of the Amazon.

  5. The main sources have been the major journals in the field, Water History, Environmental History, and Environment & History. While the thematic foci of this paper guided the choice of monographs for the analysis, it was to some degree influenced by the significance of some works within the field, indicated by citations, and occasionally limited due to resources and availability. Additionally, I have included some works published in less common languages (Finnish and Swedish).

  6. For the sake of clarity, I use river as an overarching term, including main rivers, tributaries, and smaller creeks as well, while being aware that river terminology is variable and differently defined according to linguistic, scientific, or historical contexts. The appropriate terms may vary by the discharge of the river, the navigability of the river, the size of its catchment area, its geographical location (e.g. in the Swedish language rivers north of the Göta älv and Dalälven are called älv, south of them å or ström, and rivers outside of Scandinavia are called flod), or other criteria.

  7. European scholars with their linguistic diversity balance local significance and audience and international accessibility to their research against international academic publishing with an English language dominance. Since article-length contributions can cover only a very small and specific part of river history, terming them “environmental history of river X”, which implies comprehensive coverage of complex histories, may seem inaccurate to scholars. Special journal issues focusing on one river and successfully exemplified by the “Danube-issue” of Water History (Vol 5, issue 2, 2013), proves to be one recommendable alternative to bridge these challenges.

  8. I use the term interdisciplinarity as an overarching term for different kinds of research activities that include at least two research fields, in whatever degree of interaction and relatedness, and I will not elaborate on the distinct conceptualizations of interdisciplinarity (e.g. multidisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, etc.) See Huutoniemi et al. (2010). For a discussion on the possibilities and challenges of interdisciplinarity in environmental history see Hamilton et al. (2011).

  9. These are based on typologies for the field of environmental history as presented by Massa (1991), McNeill (2003), and Mosley (2010).

  10. Massa (1991) classifies the political sphere as a distinct, fourth category that also includes changes in the institutional structures.

  11. Henshaw (2011) used the term “River of Inspiration” in his work on the Hudson River somewhat earlier but lacked more detailed elaboration on the nature of this “inspiration”.

  12. Science, Technology and Society-studies, which itself is an interdisciplinary subject.

  13. Special Issue of Water History Vol 5, issue 2 (2013).

  14. Developed by urban environmental historian Tarr (2002), and applied by e.g. Barles (2007, 2012) for the Seine study and Gierlinger et al. (2013) for the Danube.

  15. In a rare example from non-western rivers, Hoag (2013) uses the insights from several African rivers (Rufiji, Gambia, Volta, Niger) to explore and explain continuities in African development and the related colonial legacies.

  16. The adjacent articles on each case comprise a special edition of Water History 8(3):2016.

  17. Several histories of earlier periods show that human induced alterations of riverine environments are by no means an invention of the late modern period nor exclusive to the North American or European spheres (see Wilson 2010; Hoffmann 2010). However, the scale and geographical extent of human activity constitute a landmark of the modern exploitation of rivers.

  18. While the issue of cooling water used for the generation of electricity has been addressed by some scholars (e.g., White 1995, p. 81; Pritchard 2011), it has so far remained a somewhat neglected topic in environmental river histories.

  19. She credits Steinberg’s (1991) work for influence in the development of the concept.

  20. A panel at the congress of the American Society for Environmental History in 2014 was titled ‘Rivers with bad habits’.

  21. See special issue of Environment and History 19 (2), 2013.

  22. See also Reuss and Cutcliffe (2010).

  23. For an introduction to the roots and differences of historical environmental justice scholarship, see Massard-Guilbaud and Rodger 2011). Questions of justice has resonated in river history scholarship as well, and the perspective of the less-powerful in these struggles has become more present in the narratives. This is a significant theme in river histories of the non-western world, as well, as colonial legacies remain influential in present day challenges.

  24. With the exception of Mark Cioc’s “Eco-Biography of the Rhine” (2002), scholars have passed over specifying what they mean, or what temporal specifications they attribute to ‘river biography.’ See the section entitled “River biographies” in Tvedt and Jakobsson (2006a, b), where river biography as a term is neither introduced by the editors nor by the individual contributors; see also Coates (2013, p. 86).

  25. From a practical point of view, sudden exceptional events are also often the historical repositories of evidence and important source bases for the analysis.

  26. Jakobsson (2008, pp. 55–56) see the references for examples.

  27. This critique concerns the field of environmental history. See e.g. McNeill (2003, p. 35).

  28. This is an important feature in non-western river historiography as highlighted by Hoag (2013) in a study on African rivers. The many sides of river management to development of the global South is a topical theme.

  29. The Big Dam Era is often said to have started with the construction of the Hoover Dam (early 1930s) and it depicts the construction boom of large dams in North America, which lasted until the second half of the twentieth century (see e.g. Melosi 2011 for more). The (global) history of damming rivers is a vast and complex field as such, and deserves its own review.

  30. I refrain from labeling the current time as post-industrial since, despite some shifts in emphasis, industrial production and the exploitative use of rivers remains a backbone of economic success in the global north.

  31. For the historical baseline problem of ecological restoration in general, see e.g. Hall (2005).

  32. McCool (2010, pp. 281–282). This also comes close to Pritchard (2011) emphasis on “light-green” efforts to reconcile technology and nature.

  33. Environmental history has been found to be to single most increased sub-field within history during the past 4 decades, see http://historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2015/the-rise-and-decline-of-history-specializations-over-the-past-40-years.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Helsinki University Centre for Environment (Multidom-project) and the Academy of Finland (Grant Nos. 263305 and 286676).

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    Paula Schönach

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Schönach, P. River histories: a thematic review. Water Hist 9, 233–257 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-016-0188-4

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