Water

A Biography

By: Giulio Boccaletti

Narrated by: Giulio Boccaletti

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

Well-researched and we’ll told water history book

This book is truly inspirational. So many water stories. The main thread of the book is that the development of the state came from water organization needs. And the well researched history is told in a story form that reminds you of a wise old person passing on knowledge.

Tour de Force

What an insightful trip through world, geopolitical history seen through the unifying lens of water. A must read to understand our past and to prepare for out collective future.

Great book, but reader could be better

I loved the content
I only wish the reader was different
I am very hard of hearing and the accent was different from that of other readers.
That made it sometimes hard for me to understand

That said, I would get it again

one of the best non fiction books of all times

one of the best non fiction books of all times in my opinion. I would highly recommend it.

Understand Built-Environment Governance~Know Water

Listened twice. A significant amount of content to integrate with my understanding to date (1946 Boomer) to get a broader Whole Earth understanding, a goal since 1968.

The many mistakes in managing water resources revealed here are invisible as we look from our high level of assisted living.

As Humans expanded the assisted living built-environment in unsustainable ways, Nature was scarred. Water resources were damaged, and people suffered and died due to failures of intelligence.

The current sustainability challenge we face is a consequence of the 30 trillion metric tonne Technosphere.

Places in the natural environment where expansion could not be maintained, ancient settlements, are found by lidar today. Water engineering and governance are little-studied but critical, as we learn from Giulio in this book.

Listen, think, integrate and pass on this important perspective.