{"product_id":"water-a-biography-9781524748234","title":"Water: A Biography","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Giulio Boccaletti\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Pantheon Books\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Pantheon Books\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Geopolitics\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSpanning millennia and continents, a revealing history that \"tackles the most important story of our time: our relationship with water in a world of looming scarcity\" (Kelly McEvers, NPR Host). \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Far more than a biography of its nominal subject ... The book stands as a compelling history of civilization itself.\" --\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Extraordinary for its monumental scope and piercing insightfulness, \u003ci\u003eWater: A Biography \u003c\/i\u003erichly enlarges our understanding of our relationship to--and fundamental reliance on--the most elemental substance on earth.","brand":"Pantheon Books","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":45036589777047,"sku":"9781524748234","price":1430.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9781524748234.webp?v=1769213588","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/water-a-biography-9781524748234","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}