Wetlands in a Dry Land

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By focusing in on those key wetlands as case studies, O’Gorman plots a rather more open-ended story-map that draws out the Basin’s water-management, from Deep Time to the present day. It enlarges the scale of its history to include the more-than-human world; it registers the aspirations as well as the inconsistencies of ‘progress’ and ‘sustainability’ and it gives rich, place-based readings that help us understand how we got here.

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While focused on a single region, this globallyrelevant work makes a good contribution to the literature concerning wetland ecosystems.

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[T]his book mounts a new kind of multi-directional critique of modern conservation science that expands our understandings of ecological agency and colonial biopolitics. It depicts a world of nature and culture in relationship, offering a sensitive environmental history of the Murray-Darling Basin and of the diverse socioecological relationships grounded therein.

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Engangingly written and ambitious in its scope, Wetlands in a Dry Land adds complexity and nuance to our understanding of wetlands.

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[A] phenomenal study from a master river historian that can help redefine the historiography of rivers.

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Wetlands in a Dry Land is one of multiple books to be released about the Murray Darling Basin in recent years. What sets this text apart is O’Gorman’s impeccably detailed and considered research, her capacity to weave together contemporary place-based research with archival gems, the deep sensitivity and specificity through which she approaches First Nations’ culture and knowledge, and her capacity to articulate the more-than-human lives that shape these watery worlds.

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Emily O’Gorman beautifully weaves a tale of human and more-than-human existence in her book detailing the histories of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin. The basin consists of thirty thousand wetland areas, and she lays out an easy-to-follow history of how different stakeholders (of the human and nonhuman variety) have developed in conjunction with one another and with the land…One of the book’s greatest strengths comes in the form of its masterful storytelling.

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