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Water

A Biography

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Water

By: Giulio Boccaletti
Narrated by: Giulio Boccaletti
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About this listen

 Spanning millennia and continents, here is a stunningly revealing history of how the distribution of water has shaped human civilization. Boccaletti, of The Nature Conservancy, “tackles the most important story of our time: our relationship with water in a world of looming scarcity” (Kelly McEvers, NPR Host).

Writing with authority and brio, Giulio Boc­caletti—honorary research associate at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Univer­sity of Oxford—shrewdly combines environmental and social history, beginning with the earliest civ­ilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates Rivers. Even as he describes how these societies were made possible by sea-level changes from the last glacial melt, he incisively examines how this type of farming led to irrigation and multiple cropping, which, in turn, led to a population explosion and labor specialization.

We see with clarity how irrigation’s structure informed social structure (inventions such as the calendar sprung from agricultural necessity); how in ancient Greece, the communal ownership of wells laid the groundwork for democracy; how the Greek and Roman experiences with water security resulted in systems of taxation; and how the modern world as we know it began with a legal framework for the development of water infrastructure.

Extraordinary for its monumental scope and piercing insightfulness, Water: A Biography richly enlarges our understanding of our relationship to—and fundamental reliance on—the most elemental substance on earth.


Cover image: "Vista", painting by Tobias Tovera © 2016 Earth Sciences Politics & Government Science Imperialism Self-Determination Middle Ages Africa Taxation Ancient History Capitalism Climate Change Water

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I thoroughly enjoyed reading WATER: A BIOGRAPHY by Giulio Boccaletti. The book is an incredible tour de force revisiting our history and institutions through the angle of water management. It is both brilliant and breath-taking.

WATER flows through centuries and across continents and connects to reveal the underestimated connection between water and familiar events, ideas and institutions.

It is insightful and a pleasure to read.
The knowledge and research are immense yet never overwhelming because incredibly well articulated. The analysis is precise but never cryptic.

Fascinating read, real tour de force

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From the last Ice Age to the present day, an excellent appraisal of the story of water and its influence on the development of societies, and economies and on geopolitics.

Excellent appraisal of the story of water

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