In his article “Fish in the Wrong Place”, Oliver Cussen reviews Corey Ross’s Liquid Empire and James C. Scott’s In Praise of Floods, treating them as complementary explorations of what he calls “aquatic colonialism.” Both works show how imperial powers not only transformed landscapes and soils but also profoundly re-engineered rivers, lakes, and fisheries — introducing new species, redirecting waters, and restructuring aquatic ecologies in the name of productivity and control. They also highlight how these interventions left enduring and often irreversible ecological consequences; the colonial reshaping of the world’s waters remains one of the most overlooked dimensions of modern environmental history.  Cussen argues that while Scott’s In Praise of Floods offers a thought-provoking critique of human attempts to control natural systems, Ross’s work provides a more detailed and comprehensive account of the historical processes that have shaped our current planetary waterscape, making Liquid Empire a major contribution to the discourse on global environmental history and colonial studies.

Liquid Empire is Corey Ross’s fifth single-authored book, following on monographs on the environmental history of European imperialism (Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire, 2017, Oxford University Press) and the history of modern Germany (Media and the Making of Modern Germany, 2008, Oxford University Press).

Corey Ross is Director of the Institute and Professor for European Global Studies. His expertise focuses on the history of imperialism and global environmental history in the 19th and 20th centuries. His research on the socio-environmental history of Europe’s relations with the rest of the world builds on interdisciplinarity, investigates the global, transimperial and transnational circulation of ideas, goods and people, and aims to highlight perspectives that are relevant to major present-day and future challenges.

Oliver Cussen · Fish in the Wrong Place: Aquatic Colonialism

More about the book on the Princeton University Press website