Dams, Displacement, and the Delusion of Development

"At last a comprehensive, historically deep and ecologically knowledgeable study of a great dam. The Isaacmans brilliantly show how, all along the Zambezi below the Cahora Bassa Dam, whole worlds of riparian life - fish, birds, humans and other mammals - dependent on the annual inundation of the flood plain have been stilled. They recover the voices silenced by the fear and violence deployed by states devoted to the care and feeding of this mega-project. Unparalleled in its sweep, depth and attention to the lived experience of all its victims." - James C. Scott, Yale University, author of Seeing Like a State "The Isaacmans' book is a classic, comprehensive account of how a large dam, in this case Mozambique's most important 'development' project when completed, initiated a large-scale land and water grab that has adversely, and unacceptably, affected the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people living in the lower Zambezi Basin." - Thayer Scudder, California Institute of Technology, author of The Future of Large Dams "Isaacman and Isaacman provide a wrenching alternative story from the perspective of peasants, fishermen, and workers whose lives were deeply and irreparably impacted by the dam. [A] major corrective to debates about the benefits of big development projects." - Richard Roberts, Stanford University, coeditor of Trafficking in Slavery's Wake