Soil and Civilisation

Edward Hyams explores the relationships between human societies and the soil. He contrasts the civilizations based on the rich alluvial soils of the Nile, Tigris, Euphrates and Indus with Athens which produced crops on poor soils. Carthage, Rome and Oklahoma in the 1920s show man as a 'disease' of the soil. The yellow 'loess' earth of north-west China, the struggle between farmer and nomad in Russia, the Indian system of land-holding and its steady perversion under the Moghul and British Empires are explored as example of more gradual declines. Finally, the Incas and Atlantic Europeans are typified as man as 'soil maker'.