The Conquest of Nature – Water Landscape and the Making of Modern Germany

Majestic and lyrically written The Conquest of Nature traces the rise of Germany through the development of water and landscape. David Blackbourn begins his morality tale in the mid-1700s with the epic story of Frederick the Great who attempted―by importing the great scientific minds of the West and by harnessing the power of his army―to transform the uninhabitable marshlands of his scattered kingdom into a modern state. Chronicling the great engineering projects that reshaped the mighty Rhine the emergence of an ambitious German navy and the development of hydroelectric power to fuel Germanys convulsive industrial growth before World War I Blackbourn goes on to show how Nazi racial policies rested on German ideas of mastery of the natural world. Filled with striking reproductions of paintings maps and photographs this grand work of modern history links culture politics and the environment in an exploration of the perils faced by nations that attempt to conquer nature.