{"product_id":"knowing-manchuria-environments-the-senses-and-natural-knowledge-on-an-asian-borderland","title":"Knowing Manchuria: Environments, the Senses, and Natural Knowledge on an Asian Borderland","description":"Making sense of nature in one of the world’s most contested borderlands.\n\nAccording to Chinese government reports, hundreds of plague-infected rodents fell from the skies over Gannan county on an April night in 1952. Chinese scientists determined that these flying voles were not native to the region, but were vectors of germ warfare, dispatched over the border by agents of imperialism. Mastery of biology had become a way to claim political mastery over a remote frontier. Beginning with this bizarre incident from the Korean War, Knowing Manchuria places the creation of knowledge about nature at the center of our understanding of a little-known but historically important Asian landscape.\n\nAt the intersection of China, Russia, Korea, and Mongolia, Manchuria is known as a site of war and environmental extremes, where projects of political control intersected with projects designed to make sense of Manchuria’s multiple environments. Covering more than 500,000 square miles, Manchuria’s landscapes include temperate rainforests, deserts, prairies, cultivated plains, wetlands, and Siberian taiga. With analysis spanning the seventeenth century to the present day, Ruth Rogaski reveals how an array of historical actors—Chinese poets, Manchu shamans, Russian botanists, Korean mathematicians, Japanese bacteriologists, American paleontologists, and indigenous hunters—made sense of the Manchurian frontier. She uncovers how natural knowledge, and thus the nature of Manchuria itself, changed over time, from a sacred “land where the dragon arose” to a global epicenter of contagious disease; from a tragic “wasteland” to an abundant granary that nurtured the hope of a nation.\u003cbr\u003eASIN: 022680965X\u003cbr\u003eVSKU: GBV.022680965X.A\u003cbr\u003eCondition: Acceptable\u003cbr\u003eAuthor\/Artist:Rogaski, Ruth\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eNote:\u003c\/b\u003e Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition Notes\u003c\/b\u003e: This book is in acceptable condition and may have highlighting and or writing throughout. The actual cover image may not match the stock photo, dust jacket may be damaged or missing. Book may show internal and or external wear on spine or cover and may be slightly skewed or have creased pages. This is a used book so codes may be invalid or accompanying media may be missing. May be an Ex library book with stickers and stamps.  \u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Good Books Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55636610023729,"sku":"GBV.022680965X.A","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/goodbookscompany.org\/products\/knowing-manchuria-environments-the-senses-and-natural-knowledge-on-an-asian-borderland","provider":"Good Books Company","version":"1.0","type":"link"}