"[A] vivid travelogue." New Statesman "Has much to offer." The Spectator "Sparks the imagination." BBC History Magazine "A fascinating study." BBC History Revealed Magazine "Essential reading." All About History "Valiant, valuable and entertaining." Times Literary Supplement The greatest river in the world has a long and fascinating history. Professor Terje Tvedt, one of the world's leading experts on the history of waterways, travels upstream along the river's mouth to its sources. The result is a travelogue through 5000 years and 11 countries, from the Mediterranean to Central Africa. This is the fascinating story of the immense economic, political and mythical significance of the river. Brimming with accounts of central characters in the struggle for the Nile - from Caesar and Cleopatra, to Churchill and Mussolini, and on to the political leaders of today, The Nile is also the story of water as it nourished a civilization.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Despite the central importance that water has held for civilizations both ancient and modern, its social significance has made surprisingly little impact on our contemporary understanding of human history and development. Dominant interpretations of the relationship between society and nature have remained water blind. In this book, historian and leading water expert Terje Tvedt argues for a change that acknowledges the significant role played by water in societal development. Reflecting his expertise as a geographer, historian and a political scientist, and drawing on his wide experience of water issues around the world, Terje Tvedt's Water and Society provides a long overdue reappraisal of the relationship between water and society, one that gives water its rightful place as central to any true understanding of human history and development.

Challenges many of the dominant beliefs in the discourse on development and aid. Is the world witnessing a global associational revolution spearheaded by development non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Is the relationship between states and societies being more fundamentally redefined, even in remote, ruralcorners of the world? What role does the mushrooming of development NGOs play in this political-ideological process? What about NGO staff? Are they angels of mercy, government-paid development diplomats, propagandists for a triumphant West, or instruments in a coming clash between civilizations? Presented here are cases from Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Bangladesh and Nicaragua that shed light on these complex questions. The text puts forward a critique of central theories and concepts which have dominated research and discourse on development NGOs. It also proposes and demonstrates some different analytical approaches. North America: Africa World Press

The Nile Basin is a vast and varied area of 350 million people. Parts of the basin have become the very symbols of African misery, suffering drought, genocide, state failure and aid dependency. At its heart lies the Nile itself. Yet while the importance of the river is well documented for the colonial period there is no comprehensive account of its management after independence. "The River Nile in the Post-Colonial Age" details the modern development of the Nile Basin and of the efforts to manage its waters. With important new material by researchers from each of the countries through which the Nile passes, it provides an indispensable aid to understanding the complex history of the basin, the politics surrounding it and the efforts being made to jointly manage it.

The Nile today plays a crucial role in the economics, politics and cultural life of ten countries and their more than 300 million inhabitants. No other international river basin has a longer, more complex and eventful history than the Nile. In telling the detailed story of the hydropolitics of the Nile valley in a period during which the conceptualisation, use and planning of the waters were revolutionised, and many of the most famous politicians of the twentieth century Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, Dwight Eisenhower, Anthony Eden, Gamal Abdul Nasser and Haile Selassie played active parts in the Nile game, this work will stand as a case study of a much more general and acute question: the political ecology of transnational river basins."

This major bibliography presents researchers, consultants, planners, aid organizations and others with the most comprehensive overview of the literature on the southern Sudan. To facilitate ease of use it is organized according to important topics of regional development: agriculture and pastoralism; anthropological and cultural studies; British and European colonialism; Christian mission and church studies; development; fisheries; health; pre-colonial history; language studies; natural sciences; politics, ethnic and religious strife and civil war; travel and geography; and water and climate. There is a separate section detailing reports produced by consultants, governments, NGOs and UN and international aid organizations. An inventory of NGO and UN organizations working in the region and a chronology of events are also included.

The Sudan can demonstrate that while there is no short-cut to progress there is one to decay and misery. After eleven years of peace, the second civil war has now lasted for more than ten years. Regional, ethnic and religious conflicts are intensifying all over the country. The economy is in shambles while a small lite is enriching itself.

Twenty years after NGOs first emerged as objects of development research, much of the research on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and development to date has been of a variable quality. While much useful work has been done, the development NGO research field is nonetheless characterised by a combination of an over-identification with NGOs, an excessive emphasis on technical/organisational issues and a lack of theoretical-contextual analysis. The result has been work that often bows to policy rhetoric and uncritically and unhelpfully serves to sustain a set of myths about NGOs and their performance -- of both a positive and a negative kind. This volume seeks to present less well-rehearsed perspectives. Its thirteen chapters are each written by authoritative researchers in the field. The book has two main objectives: to describe and interpret key aspects of NGOs' changing roles in development, and to present new analytical approaches. A key priority is to present work that is rooted in stronger theoretical frameworks than has previously been the case, while still maintaining a relevance to policy and practice. The authors represented here are critical of many of the theories and concepts that frame the discourse on development NGOs and many of them propose alternative analytical approaches. In particular they seek to analytically integrate the international aid system in theoretical schemas that seek to explain NGOs and their roles in development. The overall aim of the book is to move forward the critical research agenda on NGOs and development by challenging its normative biases, using approaches drawn from a range of disciplinary perspectives including historical ethnography, organisational studies, political science, critical theory and anthropology.

These three volumes present an original exploration of all aspects of water--social, cultural, political, religious, historical, economic and technological--from ancient times until the present day. Among the varied themes, the contributors examine the changing histories of water as a private or common good, the politics of water at local, urban, national and international level, water in cities, great river plans, dams, river biographies, and cultural constructions of water--images of water in religion, myth, literature and art. With empirical and ethnographic case studies from around the world the three volumes together represent one of the most complete and up to date accounts of the central role of water in the history and development of humanity.

This unique bibliography provides a comprehensive survey of the literature relating to the many political, cultural, economic, and developmental aspects of the Nile. Numerous disciplines are covered, including geography, history, anthropology, and medicine; travel literature; planning and project literature produced by government bodies, international agencies and consultancy firms; and literature on basin-wide planning, water agreements, and water-need assessments for sectors and countries. If the Nile basin countries are to pursue cooperation and development successfully, dissemination of information about the river to all countries is crucial." The Nile: An Annotated Bibliography "is a major contribution to achieving that end

Major changes in policy and management , across the entire agricultural production chain, will be needed to ensure the best use of available water resources in meeting growing demands for food and other agricultural products. This new volume in the successful History of Water Series focuses on the African continent to address this key issue. Humanity has its roots in Africa and many of our food systems developed there. All types of agricultural production are present and the sheer size of the continent offers wide ecological variation from extreme desert to dense rainforest. Drawing together leading international contributors from a wide variety of disciplines Water and Food offers new insights into the evolution of food systems, from early hunter gatherers to the global challenges of the modern world.

These three volumes present an original exploration of all aspects of water - social, cultural, political, religious, historical, economic and technological - from ancient times until the present day. Among the varied themes, the contributors examine the changing histories of water as a private or common good, the politics of water at local, urban, national and international level. With empirical and ethnographic case studies from around the world the three volumes together represent one of the most complete and up to date accounts of the central role of water in the history and development of humanity.

These three volumes present an original exploration of all aspects of water--social, cultural, political, religious, historical, economic and technological--from ancient times until the present day. Among the varied themes, the contributors examine the changing histories of water as a private or common good, the politics of water at local, urban, national and international level, water in cities, great river plans, dams, river biographies, and cultural constructions of water--images of water in religion, myth, literature and art. With empirical and ethnographic case studies from around the world the three volumes together represent one of the most complete and up to date accounts of the central role of water in the history and development of humanity.

As the world's population continues to grow apace and an increasing number of countries aspire to a twenty-first century lifestyle so the question of access to water resources becomes ever more critical. This timely volume shows how the struggle to control water is an issue of growing geopolitical importance. Drawing on a wealth of examples, and revealing how current problems are not necessarily new as often suggested, the international contributors provide a deeper theroetical analysis of the issues, enabling a clearer understanding to be obtained of how experience in one region can properly be related to that of other regions.

How has water been perceived in different societies and across different eras of world history? How have these changing conceptions informed and influenced our ideas about society and ourselves? In "The Idea of Water" leading international scholars explore the rich record of our ideas, from the beliefs of early societies to the latest scientific views on the nature of this unique substance. Ranging across all aspects -- scientific, cultural and religious -- this important work both challenges conventional nterpretations and understanding of water in nature and represents one of the first attempts to provide a history of our changing conceptions of the role and significance of water in human society.

These three volumes present an original exploration of all aspects of water--social, cultural, political, religious, historical, economic and technological--from ancient times until the present day. Among the varied themes, the contributors examine the changing histories of water as a private or common good, the politics of water at local, urban, national and international level, water in cities, great river plans, dams, river biographies, and cultural constructions of water--images of water in religion, myth, literature and art. With empirical and ethnographic case studies from around the world the three volumes together represent one of the most complete and up to date accounts of the central role of water in the history and development of humanity.

"Rivers and Society" explores the ways in which human/river relations have shaped important historical transformation processes. With examples ranging from explorations of classical agrarian civilizations such as the Indus, Angkor and Maya, to analyses of the role of water in the modernization process of countries such as Spain, Britain and Japan, the international contributors shed new light on the ways in which the key relationship between humans and water has given rise to new forms of social organization, new technologies and economic activities