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Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations | 
 enlarge | Author: David R. Montgomery
Publisher: University of California Press
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy New: $11.53
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New (32) Used (5) from $10.84
Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 32049
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 296
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.8
ISBN: 0520258061
Dewey Decimal Number: 508
EAN: 9780520258068
ASIN: 0520258061
Publication Date: October 2, 2008
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Product Description
Dirt, soil, call it what you want--it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are--and have long been--using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil--as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 What you never knew about history August 28, 2007
Deborah Meckler
16 out of 16 found this review helpful
While David R. Montgomery goes on a bit long and repetitively about how and why and where and how fast soils erode, the more interesting part of the book is the new look at history--why the Romans sought new lands to conquer, how Thomas Jefferson tried and failed to get widespread adoption of contour plowing, how the depletion of the southeast's agricultural soils provided yet more impetus for the Civil War, how even in ancient times writers urged soil husbandry, yet were largely ignored as they still are today, how monoculture, slavery and now industrialized agriculture speed up the process by which land will become unable to sustain growing human populations. It's a sobering message that we ignore at our children's peril.
 An Amazing Book! June 11, 2007
S. DuBois (Berkeley, CA United States)
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
Read this book. It will change the way that you relate to civilization as we know it. David Montgomery has put together an emensly interesting, highly readable factual tale of the doom wrought when humans take dirt for granted.
The demise of soil September 13, 2007
John E. Vidale (Seattle, WA USA)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful
Policy makers at all levels as well as concerned citizens should take Dave's lessons to heart. In addition, this is THE book for the layman wondering anything about dirt's role in human history and its fate.
With unrelenting precision, Dave builds the case-by-case history of civilizations misusing the dirt to their ultimate misfortune. As a top-flight scientist and admirable philosopher, he lays bare the storyline of people first using dirt modestly, then disturbing and losing their topsoil in dozens of cases spanning the globe and ranging from pre-history to the present.
The progression of dirt degradation becomes very familiar by the end - one wonders how many more times and on what grand scale the failures will again become apparent.
A caveat - Dave is a colleague of mine, as well as an entertaining pop-folk guitar, who leads with guitar and vocals the local band "Big Dirt".
A history of farming and its long-term legacy March 15, 2008
Newton Ooi (Phoenix, Arizona United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Though the title says Dirt, it should actually say Soil, as this book is about how numerous civilizations destroyed themselves by adopting unsustainable farming practices that eventually destroyed their land. The author examines the histories of England, Roman Empire, ancient Greece, pre-colonial Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Pharaoic Egypt, continental Europe, Communist Russia, the antebellum South, Colonial New England, and China. The conclusions he draws from all are the same, agricultural practices driven by short-term profit led to long-term soil erosion and depletion. The latter created poverty, inducing emigrations, which led to civil strife, war, and gradual collapse. So this book does live up to its subtitle, it is a history of human civilization as told from the viewpoint of soil erosion.
As a work of nonfiction, its contents apply well to history, economics, geology, ecology, and anthropology, along with agriculture. As a commentary, it is quite objective and its points are well-conveyed. As reading material; it flows quite nicely and the chapters are easy to digest. A great book overall.
 Unsuitable title - otherwise fine August 1, 2007
Dan Yaalon (Israel)
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
The story of past soil erosion is not glamorous - but why title the book DIRT ? Why not TERRA MATER (mother earth) which is the true topic of this historical story. It is well told though not in a chronological sequence while passing smoothly from one civilization to another; well researched with some 300 references, but these are not cited in the text; with many of the author's direct observation from his trips as a geomorphologist. Revised edition needed. The chapters on North American events are best,
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