"The book is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the human impact on the environment in ancient East Asia."--Maxim Korolkov, Agricultural History "[Lander's] study of the Qin regime--with its unparalleled levels of premodern state centralization, explicit theorization about controlling rural production, and excavated documents that reveal the realities of rural control--makes a unique contribution to the understanding of the political ecology of all premodern agrarian societies."--D. Jonathan Felt, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies Winner of the James Henry Breasted Prize, sponsored by the AHA "Over four thousand years of unsustainable growth, Chinese states replaced a diverse ecosystem with a monocropping grain state. All states destroy environments, but only the state can save us. So ancient China's spectres still haunt our modern crisis. A brilliant and disturbing analysis!"--Peter C. Perdue, author of Environmental History in China and the West: Its Origins and Prospects (in Chinese) " The King's Harvest is an extraordinary achievement that makes a unique contribution to Chinese history, environmental history, and the history of agriculture.

"--Ruth Mostern, author of The Yellow River: A Natural and Unnatural History " The King's Harvest is based on exceptionally sound scholarship, reflecting Brian Lander's grasp of the most cutting-edge approaches to environmental history and early Chinese history."--Micah S. Muscolino, author of The Ecology of War in China "Brian Lander has written a richly detailed, engaging, and eminently readable masterpiece of environmental history, interweaving archaeological and textual evidence from Ancient China to demonstrate that 'Geopolitics are always environmental politics.'"--Rowan Flad, coauthor of Ancient Central China "Brian Lander's book boldly builds upon K. C. Chang's Archaeology of Ancient China and Mark Elvin's Retreat of the Elephants , providing one plausible explanation for agricultural innovations spurring vast sociopolitical changes. I will assign it."--Michael Nylan, author of Chang'an 26 BCE: An Augustan Age in China.