Civilizations : culture, ambition, and the transformation of nature / Felipe Fernández-Armesto.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [469]-505) and index.

Preface Introduction: THE ITCH TO CIVILIZE Civilizations and Civilization The Civilizing Ingredient The Glutinous Environment The Mask and Apollo: Recent Definitions and Approaches Reaching Between Civilizations -- and Reaching for the Unity of Civilization Process and Progress The Checklist of Civilization Back to Nature: Array by Environment Two Cheers for Civilization PART ONE: THE WASTE LAND Desert, Tundra, Ice Chapter One: THE HELM OF ICE ICE WORLDS AND TUNDRA AS HUMAN HABITATS The Ice Age in Europe -- Northern Scandinavia -- Asiatic Tundra -- Arctic America -- Greenland Beyond the Gates of Gog: The Savage North Followers of the Ice The Tamers of Reindeer Companions of the Seal Bladders: Deference to Nature in Arctic America Better Than Civilization: The Inuit in Competition with Europeans Chapter Two: THE DEATH OF EARTH ADAPTATION AND COUNTERADAPTATION IN DESERTS OF SAND The North American Southwest -- Northern Peru -- the Sahara -- the Gobi -- the Kalahari Learning from Hohokam: How to Build Civilization in the Desert The Lakes of Worms: The Limits of Civilization in the Sahara Lands of Unrest: Desert Highways Between Civilizations Spirits of the Slippery Hills: Bushmen and Civilization PART TWO: LEAVES OF GRASS Barely Cultivable Grasslands Chapter Three: THE SWEEPINGS OF THE WIND PRAIRIE AND GRASSY SAVANNA The Great Plains -- the African Savanna -- the Sahel The Intractable Grasslands The Architects of the Savanna Imperialists of the Sahel Chapter Four: THE HIGHWAY OF CIVILIZATIONS THE EURASIAN STEPPE The Wastes of Gog A Confucian Contemplates the Wild The Making of Mongol Imperialism The Mongol Roads: Causeways of Civilization PART THREE: UNDER THE RAIN Civilization in Tropical Lowlands and Postglacial Forests Chapter Five: THE WILD WOODS POSTGLACIAL AND TEMPERATE WOODLAND Cases of Deforestation -- the American Bottom -- North American Temperate Forests -- Europe The Fear of Trees: Learning to Clear the Forests The Great Wet: Early Civilizations of the North American Woodlands The Longhouse of Elm: Civilization by the Evergreen Frontier Riding the Lumber Raft: Europe After the Forest The Retreat of the Trees: From Forests to Cities in Twelfth-Century Europe Chapter Six: HEARTS OF DARKNESS TROPICAL LOWLANDS Frederik Hendrik Island -- the Olmec Heartland -- Low Amazonia -- the Lowland Maya Lands -- the Valleys of the Khmer -- Benin City The Habitable Hell: Cultivating the Swamp Amazon Lands: The Challenge of the Rain Forest The Tongue in the Stones: The Lowland Maya The Beloved of the Snake: Khmer Civilization on the Mekong The City of Death: Benin PART FOUR: THE SHINING FIELDS OF MUD Alluvial Soils in Drying Climates Chapter Seven: THE LONE AND LEVEL SANDS MISLEADING CASES IN THE NEAR EAST The Çarsamba floodplain -- the Jordan Valley -- Sumer and Egypt The Yielding Soil: Early Intensifiers of Agriculture The Garden of the Lord: Alluvial Archetypes Back from Diffusion: The Great River Valleys From Sumer to Babylon Out of the Underworld: The "Gift of the Nile" Chapter Eight: OF SHOES AND RICE TRANSCENDING ENVIRONMENTS OF ORIGIN IN CHINA AND INDIA The Indus, Yellow, and Yangtze Rivers Seals in the Sand: Lost Cities of the Indus and the Origins of India Millet and Rice, River and River: The Making of China The Checklist of Shang Civilization The Phoenix of the East: The Survival of China Expansion Without Mutation: The Chinese Grossraum PART FIVE: THE MIRRORS OF SKY Civilizing Highlands Chapter Nine: THE GARDENS OF THE CLOUDS The Highland Civilizations of the New World Mesoamerica and the Andes Altitude and Isolation: Classifying Highland Civilizations Ascent to Tiahuanaco: Predecessors of the Inca Places for the Gods: The Context of the Aztecs Contrasting Worlds: The Aztecs and Inca Juxtaposed The Vengeance of the Tribute-Bearers: Environment and Empire Chapter Ten: THE CLIMB TO PARADISE THE HIGHLAND CIVILIZATIONS OF THE OLD WORLD New Guinea -- Zimbabwe -- Ethiopia -- Iran -- Tibet The Last El Dorado The African Predicament The Mountains of Rasselas: Civilization in Ethiopia High Roads of Civilization: Overlooking Asian Trade Routes Looking Down from Tibet PART SIX: THE WATER MARGINS Civilizations Shaped by the Sea Chapter Eleven: THE ALLOTMENTS OF THE GODS SMALL-ISLAND CIVILIZATIONS The "South Seas" -- Hawaii and Easter Island -- the Aleutians -- the Maldives -- Malta -- Minoan Crete -- Venice The Tangle of Isles: Polynesian Navigation Surviving Isolation: Hawaii and Easter Island The Wind's Nest: The Islands of the Aleut Ports of Call: From the Maldives to Malta The Wreck of Paradise: Minoan Crete The Creature of the Lagoon: Venice as a Small-Island Civilization Chapter Twelve: THE VIEW FROM THE SHORE THE NATURE OF SEABOARD CIVILIZATIONS The Oran laut -- Phoenicia and Scandinavia -- the Maritime Netherlands The Sea People: Adapting to the Waves The Narrow Shores: Phoenicia and Scandinavia The Atlantic Edge The Frustrations of Rimland: The Early Phase "An Equilibrium of Mud and Water": Coaxing Civilization from the Shoals Beyond the Beach: Identifying Seaboard Civilizations Chapter Thirteen: CHASING THE MONSOON SEABOARD CIVILIZATIONS OF MARITIME ASIA Japan -- Maritime Arabia -- Southeast Asia -- Coromandel and Gujarat -- Fukien Riders of the Typhoon: Maritime Japan Caravans of the Monsoon: The Arabs and Their Seas The Ring of the Snake: The Seas of Southeast Asia The Seas of Milk and Butter: Maritime India China's Frontier to the Sea: Fukien Chapter Fourteen: THE TRADITION OF ULYSSES THE GREEK AND ROMAN SEABOARDS Boeotia -- the Greeks Overseas -- Athens -- the Aegean and Ionian Seas -- Rome -- the Roman Empire -- the Renaissances and Their Settings The Plow and the Prow: A Conversation with Hesiod The Pursuit of Galatea: Greece Takes to the Sea The Claim of Poseidon: Athens and the Sea A Hellenic Cruise: Five Wonders of Antiquity Around the Middle Sea: Ancient Rome as a Seaboard Civilization The Reach of the Classics: The Global Spread of the Greek and Roman Legacies PART SEVEN: BREAKING THE WAVES The Domestication of the Oceans Chapter Fifteen: ALMOST THE LAST ENVIRONMENT THE RISE OF OCEANIC CIVILIZATIONS From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic -- from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean The Muslim Lake The Precocity of the Indian Ocean From the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic: The Shadow of Vasco da Gama The Round Trip of Vasco da Gama Chapter Sixteen: REFLOATING ATLANTIS THE MAKING OF ATLANTIC CIVILIZATION Cultural Transmission from Europe to America and Back The Origins of the European Atlantic The Technological Strand The Power of Culture The Tyranny of the Timing Atlantic Civilization in Black and White: The Imperial Phase The World the Slaves Made Chapter Seventeen: THE ATLANTIC AND AFTER ATLANTIC SUPREMACY AND THE GLOBAL OUTLOOK From the Atlantic to the Pacific -- from the Pacific to the World Crises and Renewals of Atlantic Civilization The Limits and Limitations of Western Civilization Next Stop after the Atlantic The Revenge of Nature The Self-Threatened Menace The Last Ocean Epilogue: In Derek Jarman's Garden Notes Index