Book Review Essay: Exploring The Organic Machine by Richard White

This essay reviews Richard White's 'The Organic Machine,' exploring the complex relationship between humans, nature, and energy, particularly in the context of the Columbia River. The review analyzes White's discussion of how this relationship evolves, highlighting examples of energy transitions and their impact on the environment and local communities. The essay examines the remaking of the Columbia River during the 20th century, focusing on developments related to energy and their consequences. Furthermore, it connects White's analysis to course materials and reflects on how the book has influenced the reviewer's perspective on energy transitions and sustainability. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding the interplay between human actions and the environment, advocating for a more sustainable approach to resource management and ethical considerations. It covers themes of environmental history, technological advancements, and the impact of human activities on natural systems, including the salmon population and its significance in the ecosystem.

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Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:
In the book ‘The organic Machine’, Richard White who is an American historian
explores the existing relationship between the human history of Pacific Northwest and the
natural history of the Columbia River for both whites and Native American (Evenden 710). In
this essay, the organic Machine is reviewed and analysed involving the writer’s perspective of
between people, nature and energy.
White discusses the useful history of the environment and tells the story of the Columbia
River since its inception. The writer focused on the discussion between northwestern American
people and their environment during the era of the 19th and 20th centuries. He described the way
energy, labour, competition and injustice make nature and people together. The writer argues that
there are inevitable interactions between environment and humans that culminate as misplaced
overconfidence among the humans and lead to the replacement of the natural system. According
to him, there have been centuries of exploitative thinking which have complicated the
interpretation of appropriate human-nature relationships. This is the main reason for the
transformation of Columbia and exploitation. Whites argued that Columbia and environment are
seen in general as an interconnected and interdependent system it can help society and help
prevent continued destruction, overuse, and pollution. It will even reduce ethical injustices, loss
of cultural heritage, conflict and social being. With this message, White was able to have a

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universal impact, and it helped to bring changes such a green building, sustainable built
environment and many more.
During the early and mid-20th century when the people approached the government for
help from all the exploitation and overworking, the government was hardly aware of the ways to
manage natural systems. In order to stop the fish stocks from disappearing, the government
initiated an intervention was targeted to enhance the spawning process and creating fish ladders
or passes through dams rather than prevention of overfishing and blockage in the first place. The
new salmon, with the combination of biology and technology, made production with nature as
inefficient. Although there was a failure, the desire to bring change and improve nature’s
efficiency was strong. The population of salmon was increasing even though there was a failure
which improved the relationship between the Native Americans. It also stopped capitalist
magnets that were competing and defeating the smaller fishermen. Slowly the salmon population
was a popular topic for debate. The century remade the Columbia River by giving enormous
improvement. The entire salmon life cycle was taken over by the government (Iglesias, Ind and
Alfaro 150). The salmon is a disappearing fish only for various reasons such as habitat
destruction, deforestation overfishing and buildings. Now, salmons are needed to be grown and
then shifted from place to place to let them mature to be fished by local fishermen. White
highlighted that the energy of land and sea had been knit together by salmon, they also united the
non-human labour and human labour, and the salmon defined the river of millennia. It is sad that
they were disappearing. The local and native people voiced their desires loudly in order to save
the salmon. However, they could only push to reduce the dams and infrastructure that was the
reason for the decline.

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White’s description related to the material that was discussed had various things to offer.
It helped gained knowledge about the Columbia River and the complex interaction between
technology, environment, energy and culture. It did have some of the points that have been
criticised.
According to Cordier 9120, the book considered the damming and harnessing of the
river. The book forces to think in a different way challenging readers to understand the Columbia
River and the as a product of the interplay between human history and natural history, the larger
environment. According to Shove and Walker 45, Whites writes about the energy and work and
the environment. According to Ley et al. 3450, the book has been an equal balance of both
technology and culture. Technology seems to be the tool that people use to extract the resources
from rivers. Culture has appeared the values and attitudes, it includes aspirations and dreams.
Whites’ perspective was on the race and gender as well which sought to make and remake river
according to the own image. It is like the cyborg-like cultural artefact, the Columbia River that
emerges from the organic machine.
White’s text has influenced a wide range of the earth. The text had indeed highlighted the
relationship between human, environment and technology. It has helped me learn the importance
of living being, consisting of the environment and nature. The feeling of responsibility for nature
which are damaged by human being in order to obtain resources. It is a book that covers the
entire spectrum of the Columbia River basin as well as the history involved with it and the
information about Salmon, Labor, the history of dams, the nature of rivers, greed, dreams of
American equality, mismanagement, and hubris on a massive humanmade scale.

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References:
Cordier, Tristan, et al. "Predicting the ecological quality status of marine environments from
eDNA metabarcoding data using supervised machine learning." Environmental science &
technology 51.16 (2017): 9118-9126.
Evenden, Matthew. "Beyond the Organic Machine? New Approaches in River Historiography."
Environmental History 23.4 (2018): 698-720.
Iglesias, Oriol, Nicholas Ind, and Manuel Alfaro. "The organic view of the brand: A brand value
co-creation model." Advances in Corporate Branding. Palgrave Macmillan, London,
2017. 148-174.
Ley, Steven V., et al. "Organic synthesis: march of the machines." Angewandte Chemie
International Edition 54.11 (2015): 3449-3464.
Shove, Elizabeth, and Gordon Walker. "What is energy for? Social practice and energy demand."
Theory, Culture & Society 31.5 (2014): 41-58.