Water : a biography / Giulio Boccaletti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Boccaletti, Giulio, 1974- author.

Contributor:

Beverly Bennett Rutstein CW'50 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Water--History.

Water.

Water--Political aspects--History.

Water-supply.

Water security.

Water--Political aspects.

History.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xiv, 378 pages : color maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Pantheon Books, [2021]

Summary:

"In this richly narrated and authoritative work--combining environmental and societal history--Giulio Boccaletti begins with the earliest civilizations of sedentary farmers on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates. He describes how these societies were made possible by sea level changes from the last glacial melt. He examines how this sedentary farming led to irrigation and multiple cropping, which, in turn, resulted in an explosion in population and the specialization of labor. We see how irrigation structure led to social structure--inventions like the calendar sprung from agricultural necessity; how, in Ancient Greece, communal ownership of wells laid the groundwork for democracy; how the Greek and Roman experience dealing with water security was the seed for tax systems. And he makes clear how the modern world as we know it began with a legal structure for the development of water infrastructure. In its scope and clarity, Water: A Biography provides a fascinating framework through which we can more fully understand society's relationship to, and fundamental reliance on, the most elemental substance on our planet"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: pt. I ORIGINS

1. Standing Still in a World of Moving Water

2. The Rise of the Hydraulic State

3. Bronze Age Globalization

4. An Article of Faith

5. The Politics of Water

6. Res Publica

pt. II A THOUSAND YEARS OF CONVERGENCE

7. Fragments of the Past

8. The Republic Returns

9. Water Sovereignty no

10. American River Republic

11. Global Water Empire

12. The Great Utopian Synthesis

pt. III THE HYDRAULIC CENTURY

13. Setting the Stage for Revolution

14. Crisis and Its Discontent

15. Industrializing Modernity

16. FDR's Modernization Project

17. Cold War

18. The Great Acceleration

19. The End of an Era

pt. IV FINALE

20. A World of Scarcity

21. A Planetary Experiment.

Notes:

Map on lining papers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-358) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Beverly Bennett Rutstein CW'50 Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Boccaletti, Giulio, Water

ISBN:

9781524748234

1524748234

OCLC:

1190838141

Publisher Number:

99988705544