Drinking Water

A History

By: James Salzman

Narrated by: Lee Hahn

When you turn on the tap or twist the cap, you might not give a second thought to where your drinking water comes from. But how it gets from the ground to your glass is far more complex than you might think. Is it safe to drink tap water? Should you feel guilty buying bottled water? Is your water vulnerable to terrorist attacks? With springs running dry and reservoirs emptying, where is your water going to come from in the future?

In Drinking Water, Duke professor James Salzman shows how drinking water highlights the most pressing issues of our time - from globalization and social justice to terrorism and climate change - and how humans have been wrestling with these problems for centuries.

Bloody conflicts over control of water sources stretch as far back as the Bible yet are featured in front page headlines even today. Only 50 years ago, selling bottled water sounded as ludicrous as selling bottled air. Salzman weaves all of these issues together to show just how complex a simple glass of water can be.

©2012 James Satzman (P)2013 Gildan Media LLC

Reads like a mediocre essay

While the narrator did well and the information is good, the writing felt disjointed, and the point felt missed. The whole rant at the beginning about water as a holy symbol simply didn't lead anywhere.

Some revelations about water I didn't know ...

While the story and content was interesting I struggled to finish with the narrator's lack of pizzazz and his monotone voice. I would recommend the book for the content alone and the insights a listener will gain. I liked the way the author kept the story-line moving. Also, most of my questions and concerns were addressed by sticking with the book.

Unfortunately Missing Flint Michigan

After this book was published, James Salzman was compelled to write another chapter analyzing the disaster in Flint Michigan (which, as of this writing, has _still_ not been fixed). Unfortunately, this audobook was recorded before that chapter was written, and the absence of it is felt in many earlier chapters, when Flint's situation would provide excellent examples or counter-examples.

That said, the book is a very good popular history of drinking water, taking examples from all around the world and back into thousands of years of recorded history. Salzman's pragmatic approach considers both "water as a commodity" and "water as a human right", and keeps from taking sides, asking only whether people are getting drinking water.

I knew most of the science already, but not much of the history. And presenting both helped me understand the politics.

Required Reading

Should be required reading for highschool kids and all politicians. Very enlightening on how water has affected the way societies progressed and the way that people can be manipulated - think bottled water...

Great listen

As a drinking water professional this book connected a lot of dot’s for me. I will definitely listen to it again.