Robert B. Marks, "China’s Environmental History over the Very Long Term"

Drawing from his recently published book, China: Its Environment and History, Professor Marks will highlight what he sees as some of the major themes in China's very long environmental history, as well as some of the contentious issues in its understanding and interpretation. Presented by Harvard University's Fairbanks Center for Chinese Studies.

China’s Environmental History over the Very Long Term
Robert B. Marks, Whittier College

Drawing from his recently published book, China: Its Environment and History, Professor Marks will highlight what he sees as some of the major themes in China’s very long environmental history, as well as some of the contentious issues in its understanding and interpretation. What have been the dynamics of environmental change in China from the Neolithic to the present? How have interactions among various peoples led to differing and often conflicting views and practices concerning the environment? Is the major theme one of continuous environmental degradation or of the development of sustainable practices? How has the dynamic of economic development versus environmental protection played out over the very long term? How much of a break from the past was “1949?”

Robert B. Marks is Richard and Billie Deihl Professor of History at Whittier College in southern California. His most recent book is China: Its Environment and History (2012). Other publications include Tigers, Rice, Silk and Silt: Environment and Economy in Late Imperial South China (1998; published in Chinese in 2009), and The Origins of the Modern World: A Global and Ecological Narrative from the Fifteenth to the Twenty-first Century (2009). His PhD in Chinese history is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Moderated by Micah Muscolino, Visiting Professor of History