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Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations Paperback – April 10, 2012
| David R. Montgomery (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Enhance your purchase
- Print length296 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherUniversity of California Press
- Publication dateApril 10, 2012
- Dimensions6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100520272900
- ISBN-13978-0520272903
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Argues persuasively that soil is humanity’s most essential natural resource and essentially linked to modern civilizations’s survival. . . . Makes a convincing case for the need to respect and conserve the world’s limited supply of soil.” ― Publishers Weekly
“Fascinating insights into what be our most precious natural resource and gives important pointers toward sustainable land management.” ― BioScience
“Unique perspective, sound research, and compelling narrative” ― Library Journal
“This dirt’s-eye-view of history provides an interesting perspective on a vast range of topics, from the vanquishing commons and the rise of private estates in Europe to the drive to colonize the Americas, from slavery and the Industrial Revolution to floods and famines in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century China. And no book on dirt can pass lightly over the Depression-era Dust Bowl or its lesser-know Soviet counterpart.” ― Bookforum
“Sobering. . . . A timely text that will no doubt stimulate the discussion of this issue, and its potential solutions, for years to come.” ― Environment & History
"A compelling study on soil: why we need it, how we have used and abused it, how we can protect it, and what happens when we let it slip through our fingers." ― New Scientist
“Tell(s) a story which we cannot afford to ignore. . . . Well and eloquently told.” ― Financial Times
“Excellent, clearly written addition to the field. . . . Highly recommended.” ― CHOICE
“Anyone interested in environmental issues should read this book. . . . Entertains and stimulates thought.” ― Times Higher Education
“Makes fascinating bridges between geology, archeology, and history in studying the relationship between soils and civilizations.” ― Journal of Soil and Water Conservation
“Montgomery has produced a fine study that cycles through history, builds on a series of case studies, and makes comparisons across significant periods of time--all of which make this book an enjoyable read . . . Historians who study the rise and fall of civilizations must acknowledge the important questions raised by Montgomery’s ground-breaking work.” ― H-Net Reviews
“Dirt jumps across geologic time and space and argues that how societies fare in the long run depends on how they treat their soils. Simple. Concise. You are your dirt.” ― Hobby Farms
“Strengthen[s] appreciation for how important the soil is to our existence. . . . It is a must read for anyone who works with soil, and it should be of interest to all who care about our natural resources.” ― Great Plains Research
“A compelling read. . . . Enlightening, well founded and thoroughly researched.” ― Treehugger
“Timely. . . Strongly recommend[ed] for both the general public and the archeological community.” ― Journal of Field Archaeology
“Sounds an ever timely and necessary clarion call for our generation at long last to stop exacerbating the abuses of the past and, wherever possible, to begin rectifying their dire consequences.” ― Vadose Zone Journal
“This book provides a useful and engaging primer on the history of humanity’s understanding of and relationship with soil.” ― Isis
“A comprehensive and readable summary of how civilizations have depended on the half-meter of life-generating topsoil that mantles our continents.” ― Geotimes
From the Inside Flap
"The relationship between soils and societies has been crucial for humankind for 10,000 years. David Montgomery brings a geomorphologist's eye and a world-historical vision to the subject, showing why it demands our attention."J.R. McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun
In our cyber-charged age, its easy to forget that all six billion of us stand on the thin skin of the earth. Humanity is agriculture and agriculture is soil, just as it has been for 10,000 years. David Montgomerya competent digger of dirt and an engaging storytellershows how a close look at the soil can reveal a surprising amount about who we are and where we are headed.Richard Manning, author of Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
From the Back Cover
"The relationship between soils and societies has been crucial for humankind for 10,000 years. David Montgomery brings a geomorphologist's eye and a world-historical vision to the subject, showing why it demands our attention."―J.R. McNeill, author of Something New Under the Sun
“In our cyber-charged age, it’s easy to forget that all six billion of us stand on the thin skin of the earth. Humanity is agriculture and agriculture is soil, just as it has been for 10,000 years. David Montgomery―a competent digger of dirt and an engaging storyteller―shows how a close look at the soil can reveal a surprising amount about who we are and where we are headed.”―Richard Manning, author of Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : University of California Press; Second Edition, With a New Preface (April 10, 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 296 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0520272900
- ISBN-13 : 978-0520272903
- Item Weight : 1.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #86,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #12 in Soil Science (Books)
- #112 in Ecology (Books)
- #141 in History of Civilization & Culture
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

David R. Montgomery studied geology at Stanford University before earning his Ph.D. in geomorphology at UC Berkeley. He teaches at the University of Washington where he studies the evolution of topography and how geological processes shape landscapes and influence ecological systems. He loved maps as a kid and now writes about the relationship of people to their environment, regenerative agriculture, and other things that interest him. In 2008 he was named a MacArthur Fellow. He lives with his wife Anne Biklé in Seattle, Washington.
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Top reviews from the United States
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"It's like the earth's skin" he keeps saying. And as a non-scientist, the analogy is appealing.
When he deals with the past, the pattern he lays out is simple: a civilization uses up its soil, and moves on to other soil to use up; or a civilization uses up its soil, and the civilization declines.
Problem: we don't have much new soil to move on to, all the best stuff is in the temperate zone (the soil in the tropics is not as good and gets depleted much more quickly), and we don't really want to decline.
He makes the case for farming in different ways, smaller farms, less monoculture, drastic reduction in pesticide and fertilizer, more labor intensive farming, mulching/manure, contoured plowing, etc. etc. It is both radical, and reasonable.
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Units! Units are the worst part of the book.
He's only got four things to measure, but he makes it so hard to follow. We have depth of soil. That one he handles ok. He uses inches, and he uses feet. Reasonable.
Time. He uses years. Tens of years. Hundreds of years. Thousands of years. And generations. He should dump those generations. Unnecessarily confusing. But I'm being picky.
Areas. Acres. Hectares. Square miles. Size of ________ (fill in the country). This drove me nuts. Pick a small measure (acre or ha.) and stick with it. For larger areas, pick one familiar area, and compare all others against it. I like France. "An area one tenth the area of France" "an area half as large as France" "a bit larger than France" - If France is the wrong unit, pick another. But pick one, and stay with it. Otherwise the reader just gets confused. Most people do not offhand have the ability to compare lots of areas.
How fast does soil erode? Montgomery uses inches per century. Or years per inch. Or inches per year. Or inches per thousand years. The concept itself, that soil disappears, is foreign. Shifting units on top of this is confusing for no reason. I should have converted each figure to inches per century. Instead I just got frustrated as I read.
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Soil erosion is important. Soil is a resource that is disappearing like oil. We should know more.
Montgomery makes this information accessible. He emphasizes the importance, at a level technical enough for the science-interested layman. Aside from the units (just convert to inches per century) it is a relatively easy read.
It is worth knowing more about this topic, and Dirt is an excellent intro.
As the author argues and documents, if we wait until food prices double and triple because our topsoil has all been eroded due to short-sighted expediency priorities and perserve government policies, it will be too late to save humanity from an apocalyptic fate that has befallen countless 'advanced' societies in the past several thousand years. Dr. Montgomery provides numerous examples lf soil mismanagement and good management through the ages, and often provides reasons for these differences. He marshals evidence that present agricultural practices that minimize soil erosion and build the organic matter content of soils are not necessarily a short term economic liability for the practitioners. He holds out the possibility that further understanding of how the extinct Amazonians made their unique remarkably resilient and fertile terra preta soils may provide an additional tool for achieving sustainable fertile soils without massive applications of nonrenewable inorganic fertilizers.
The contemporary book 'Collapse' covers much the same territory, but is much longer, is broader in scope in some respets, but with generally less depth on the subject of soil itself. The 2 books should be considered largely complementary, and among the most important books for everyone to read and understand. I do wish the author had chosen a better title. In our introductory course in soils, it was quickly made clear that 'dirt' is any rather granular or powdery material that is out of place, according to our interests. This book is about soil management and mismanagement, not dirt!
Dr. Kathryn Hain
Top reviews from other countries
Montgomery makes a compelling case for implementing techniques such as regenerative agriculture, no-till, organic, adding any form of organic material for holding existing soil in place and rebuilding topsoil. He gives clear example of civilsations that have collapsed owing to their failures failing to implement these techniques (Easter Island, the Roman Empire being prime exampes), and sends the reader a clear message that our own long-term societal collapse is staring us in the face if we continue with industrial agriculture rather than transitioning towards more sustainable models that put soil health first.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 29, 2020
Montgomery makes a compelling case for implementing techniques such as regenerative agriculture, no-till, organic, adding any form of organic material for holding existing soil in place and rebuilding topsoil. He gives clear example of civilsations that have collapsed owing to their failures failing to implement these techniques (Easter Island, the Roman Empire being prime exampes), and sends the reader a clear message that our own long-term societal collapse is staring us in the face if we continue with industrial agriculture rather than transitioning towards more sustainable models that put soil health first.
The take home message is that if we neglect our soils, and continue to fail to recognise them at a strategic resource, our global civilisation is kind of doomed to fail. In the same way that many past civilisations found to their cost.
But the message of hope is that through understanding how soils work within an ecosystem we can actually turn things around. Though this will require a significant shift in farming techniques, landscape management and policy.









