This was a very difficult book to read. I spent two months in understanding and appreciating this research. I took more than 120 notes and annotations. Unruly Waters talks about climate change, politics, human ideas and human ideologies.
Every subject is connected with the others, and everything is important to understand modern Asia.

The author starts with India and monsoons. This first part was very fascinating and enlightening, talking about climate periods in Asia, especially in Indian area. The story of the country is long, so the author chooses to focus on colonial time. It isa good choice, just because this was the time of new engineerings and new machines, that were used then in industrial locations.

Really fascinating was the description of waters-system in Asia: the Himalayans rivers run throough sixteen countries, for esample, and the mountains are so big to shape Earth's climate because of concentration of snow, ice, heat and melting water.
In Asia there is more than half of the world's population, but it contains less freshwater than any continent. All twenty cities in the world with the largest populations vulnerable to rising sea levels are in Asia.
On fact is clear: we live in the world created by our earlier generations' dreams and fear of water.
Unruly Waters tells the story of how colonialism, science, politics, culture have changed Asia's world and Asia's waters the past twoo hundred years. The ecology of water is a consequential of moder history and of its cultural and political transitions. The landscape is like the mirror of human behavior.
This book has its focus on India because this country was central to the history of British Empire, linked to the history of climate change.
This is a well researched book; the author wrote it from 2012 to 2015, and he did a great job. The problem is that I'm not the right audience, even if I understand everything and appreciate the Historical elements in it. I was interested, for example, in the Mughal realm, that expanded in XVI century and its territory was far into South India. In the Mughal tradition of landscape architecture gardens were basic, symbolic and aesthetic places: they were places of beauty and sensual pleasure. Water is important for gardens and traditions and culture.
A lot of historical facts are described in this book, if you are a curious person I totally recomend this book.

This is a dense, clearly well-researched book about the relationship between water and Asia. Amrith is clearly well-versed in this subject but at times I felt the information was a little scattered and often felt my mind wandering as I tried to connect and process all of the facts. I think this would be a great book for someone researching similar topics and needing references.

Not since Steven Solomon's epic treatment of the subject (his masterly treatise was titled, "Water, The Epic Struggle for wealth, power and civilization), has this resource been subjected to such a masterly analysis and its role in nurturing civilizations explored so comprehensively. Sunil Amrith in his book "Unruly Waters" provide a fascinating aspect of how this great teeming mass of liquid influences an entire geography and its inhabitants. This is a work that will linger in the minds of the reader long after the covers come down.

very well researched book, packed full with great information on the topic BUT sadly i found the writing very lacking and hard to read and with that making it hard to enjoy the book and all the informations it has to offer.

Sorry to say it, but I gave up on this about halfway through. There is so much good information packed into this book, but it just isn't organized. It jumps all over the place. The research is there, the interesting topics are there, but it needs better planning. Maybe a chronological order, or discussing the topics region by region. (which it did in some points, but never seemed to stay on a single theme.) The opening was very good so it was hard to give it up midway through.

The cover is gorgeous.

Well-researched, well-written, and just overall a job well done on Amrith's very different historical approach. For anyone studying Asian history or just enjoys learning and reading about it in their spare time, this is an excellent resource to help expand upon one's understanding of its past.

This is a very interesting book, as it focuses on the history of some Asian countries (primarily India) but through the lends of how water has shaped their environment, politics, and everyday lives. Often, we don't consider natural resources when talking about history and why things happened, but Unruly Waters reminds us that vital resources make a huge difference in the development of civilizations. The writing is clear and the pictures are helpful. I recommend it for any library looking for alternate looks on history and for anyone light on Asian history.