Reviewed by:

• A River in the City of Fountains: An Environmental History of Kansas City and the Missouri River by Amahia K. Mallea
• Brian Frehner (bio)

The story of Kansas City's growth and its need for water have often been a story about racial and class inequality. The connection between water and inequality is so embedded in the city's history that public officials are, at this very moment, meeting to rename a fountain that serves as the centerpiece of a popular commercial district known as "the Plaza." The J. C. Nichols Memorial Fountain commemorates the man who built the district as the country's first automobile-friendly shopping mall and as the centerpiece of the suburban neighborhood sprawling southward where many white residents fled urbanization and Black Americans. Nichols is also widely known for creating stark racial divides in the city by instituting real estate covenants for the houses he built that effectively "redlined" neighborhoods, excluding Black Americans and Jews. In recent weeks, protestors have gathered next to Nichols Fountain to protest the death of a Black American man, George Floyd, at the hands of Minneapolis police and to call for racial equality. Under its current name, the fountain has come to symbolize both the racist legacy of urban infrastructure and how inequality has marked the control of water in Kansas City, an idea at the center of this book. [End Page 1245]

According to the author, Amahia Mallea, A River in the City of Fountains is about the "long-term intimate relationship" between Kansas City and the Missouri River and "about how intertwined the city and river" have been (p. 2). Although "intertwined," the Missouri River curiously "became invisible to Kansas Citians" even though it supplied water for drinking, fountains, and sewers (p. 1). Mallea never entirely elucidates the reasons for the river's invisibility, which would have made the book's central ideas clearer and easier to discern. Instead, she argues "what we have is a complex relationship in which the social matrix is constantly and inseparably interacting with the ecological system, and together they make the urban environment" (p. 2). Thus, it is the relationship between Kansas City and the Missouri River the author seeks to capture, much as Richard White has done in his book The Organic Machine. White explains that it is "the history of the relationship itself" around which he organizes his ideas, and Mallea strives to emulate this approach.

The book's title does not fully express the broad scope of material covered, as the subject matter extends far beyond Kansas City and the Missouri River. Those who have never visited the Kansas City metropolitan area might not know that there are actually two urban centers named "Kansas City." The two cities are adjacent. One is in the state of Kansas and the other is in Missouri. The Kansas-Missouri state line divides the cities, as does a portion of the Missouri River. The Kaw River runs just south of Kansas City in Kansas and empties into the Missouri River near the state line where the two cities meet. Mallea's book is partly an exploration of how these political and geographical markers have complicated the broader metropolitan area's relationship with water over time, resulting in disparities among those who rely on these rivers.

The book's ten chapters are grouped into three parts and cover a chronological timeframe running roughly from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. Part I examines the relationship between city and river in terms of flooding, drinking water, and sewage. Part II surveys the diverse constituents who relied on the Missouri River as well as the Kaw River in neighboring Kansas City, Kansas. Part III recounts efforts to manage the Missouri River as part of a broader regional plan, the 1951 flood, and public health values that increasingly informed the river's management. The book concludes with a chapter on recent efforts to remediate the river and some personal reflections by the author on her...

审核人：

• 喷泉之城中的一条河：堪萨斯城和密苏里河的环境史，作者： Amahia K. Mallea
• 布莱恩·弗莱纳（生物）

堪萨斯城的成长及其对水的需求常常是关于种族和阶级不平等的故事。水与不平等之间的联系已根植于这座城市的历史中，以至于此时此刻，政府官员正在开会重命名喷泉，将其作为广受欢迎的商业区“广场”的核心。JC尼科尔斯纪念喷泉（JC Nichols Memorial Fountain）纪念该人，该人将该地区建成后，成为该国第一个对汽车友好的购物中心，并且是向南蔓延的郊区社区的中心地带，许多白人居民逃离了城市化进程，并逃离了黑人。尼科尔斯（Nichols）也因在城市中建立鲜明的种族隔离而广为人知，他为自己建造的房屋制定了房地产契约，从而有效地对街区进行了“下划线”。不包括黑人美国人和犹太人。最近几周，抗议者聚集在尼科尔斯喷泉旁，抗议明尼阿波利斯警方杀害一名黑人黑人乔治·弗洛伊德（George Floyd），并呼吁种族平等。喷泉以其当前名称来象征着城市基础设施的种族主义遗产，以及不平等如何标志着堪萨斯城的水控制，这是本书的中心思想。[完第1245页]

作者Amahia Mallea认为，“喷泉之城的一条河”是关于堪萨斯城与密苏里河之间的“长期亲密关系”，以及“关于这座城市与河水之间如何交织”的观点（第2页）。尽管密苏里河“交织在一起”，但尽管它提供了饮用水，喷泉和下水道（第1页），但它却“变得堪萨斯州人看不见了”（第1页）。Mallea从来没有完全阐明河流不可见的原因，这会使该书的中心思想更清晰，更容易辨认。相反，她认为“我们所拥有的是一种复杂的关系，在这种关系中，社会基质与生态系统不断而密不可分地相互作用，并共同构成了城市环境”（第2页）。从而，作者试图在堪萨斯城和密苏里河之间找到一个机会，就像理查德·怀特（Richard White）在他的《有机机器》一书中所做的一样。怀特解释说，正是他围绕着“关系本身的历史”来组织自己的想法，而马尔莱则努力效仿这种方法。

由于主题范围远远超出堪萨斯城和密苏里河，因此本书的标题并未充分表达所涵盖材料的广泛范围。那些从未去过堪萨斯城都会区的人可能不知道实际上有两个市区中心称为“堪萨斯城”。这两个城市是相邻的。一个在堪萨斯州，另一个在密苏里州。堪萨斯-密苏里州际线划分城市，密苏里河的一部分也是如此。考河（Kaw River）在堪萨斯州的堪萨斯市以南延伸，并排入密苏里河，靠近两个城市相交的国家线。Mallea的书在某种程度上探讨了这些政治和地理标志如何随着时间的流逝而使大都市地区与水的关系变得复杂，从而导致依赖这些河流的人们之间的差异。

该书的十章分为三个部分，涵盖了从19世纪末到1970年代的时间顺序。第一部分从洪水，饮用水和污水的角度研究了城市与河流之间的关系。第二部分调查了依赖密苏里河以及堪萨斯州堪萨斯城附近的河川的不同成分。第三部分叙述了作为更广泛的区域计划，1951年洪水和公共卫生价值的一部分来管理密苏里河的努力，这些价值日益成为该河管理的信息。这本书的结尾是一章，内容是最近对河进行整治的工作以及作者对河的一些个人看法。