The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History

by Brian Griffith

This magnificent history of the desert relates the human consequences of its relentless expansion. As a result of the past several thousand years, the Great Desert now stretches in almost unbroken continuity from Mauritania's Atlantic seaboard through the Middle East and Central Asia to the Great Wall of China. The author seeks to understand how the great civilizations in the original "green lands" of North Africa, Ancient Egypt, the Middle East, South Asia, and China responded and changed under the pressure of invaders fleeing growing environmental degradation in the surrounding deserts. In fascinating detail, Brian Griffith's cultural history of the deserts of Africa and Asia shows how the expanding wasteland fundamentally reshaped people's images of nature, women, politics, and religion.

Genres: Nonfiction

424 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2001

About the author

Griffith is a writer who collects stories about the relations between history, religion, and the environment.

Reviews

[Av Ferzair Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book, had no idea of the impact it will give to me - but I'm glad I did. For a book that didn't shout for any attention, it is a eco-centric heavyweight. The history of how the world turned out to be, could be summed up through how we treat it. Of course I make it sound simple, but it is. Take care of your own land, and as the pages after pages of historical reference the simple anecdote repeats itself for warmongering clans in search of greener pastures did only that and move on after the land dries up. Slash and burn. Unfortunately, the more peaceful and caring type of people are farmers, painstakingly healing the earth from desertification had almost no chance against the barbaric attack of the nomads. Fast forward modern era, it seemed the roles might have earned different names but the effect is the same. It transcends beyond land value, as it influences society, cultural norms even to the perspective on roles woman and men, you'd be surprised these things have different set of characters in a different climate, how people of the sand react is often stark opposite of those living in the lush greens if the rainforests. I'm not doing this book any justice as I could imagine the thorough research done on the subject actually spans more than desert issues and historical facts, this book is mind-blowing if you let it be. I'm just going to tend my garden, even when I know I'm not a green thumb. Something in me has changed, thanks to this book.

[Michael Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book. I learned a little bit about everything from early Islam to the various waves of nomadic invaders pressing out of Central Asia.