Many of the world's major cities sprang up on the banks of rivers. Used for water, food, irrigation, transportation & power, rivers sustain life & connect places & countries, but most of us think of them simply as waterways that must be crossed on the way to somewhere else. Relating the biographies of four European & two North American rivers, A Story of Six Rivers considers the place of rivers in our world & emphasizes the inextricable links between their history, culture & ecology. This book gives voice to six bodies of water: the Danube, the second-longest river in Europe; the Spree, which flows through Berlin; the Po, which cuts eastward across northern Italy; the Mersey in northwest England; the Yukon, which runs through Canada & Alaska; & the Los Angeles River in California. Rivers nurture us, provide cultural & economic opportunities & pose threats to our everyday lives. Though recent narratives paint rivers as the victims of abuse, pollution & damage at the hands of humans, this book focuses on change rather than devastation. Though humans & rivers form a symbiotic
- & sometimes mutually destructive
- relationship, rivers also illustrate the limits of human authority, & their capacity to inspire us is as strong as our ability to pollute them. An intimate portrait of the way these watercourses inform our lives, A Story of Six Rivers will make us reconsider the liquid ribbons we traverse each day.