Water

In a dazzling tale that spans millennia, geography, science, and human civilizations, Water: A Biography is more than the story of water. With water as its connecting tissue, this is a story of ideas and institutions; of tensions between individual enterprise and collective action; of human needs and planetary dynamics that outstrip human agency to manage Nature. Stretching back to nomadic foragers through early city-states to modern mega-nations, this saga of water is a saga of political architecture and the linkages of institutions, nations, and collective action to the exigencies of securing and sustaining water for people. I am astonished at its breadth, depth, and scholarship, at once encyclopedic yet also highly readable.
--Lynn Scarlett, Former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior; Chief External Affairs Officer, The Nature Conservancy.

A revealing and accessible analysis of one of society's longest and most fundamental relationships with the planet. It traces how institutions have evolved to cope with the challenge of managing and regulating the competition for water on which all the Earth's very dynamic ecosystems depend. Water is one of Nature's flows. It defies capture by concepts such as sovereignty. The analysis is very deeply informed because the author has worked with the most experienced professionals and scientists who have studied and sometimes made the history of water. It is a very complicated story told with elegance and authority.
--Professor Tony Allan, King's College London; Winner of the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize; Author of The Middle East Water Question

Water: A Biography is a masterly, compelling history of the relationship between society and water. It weaves politics, history, and science in a riveting narrative that spans millennia. Giulio Boccaletti has spent years working on water issues at the highest level and it shows. This is a monumental work, which is a must read for anyone wanting to understand the role of water in human history.
--Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Chairman Emeritus, Neslte S.A.; Vice-Chairman, Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum.

"Boccaletti's Water is a brilliant exploration of the role water has played in societies' fortune or downfall. Water provides us with a poignant reminder of the fragility of our natural world and its critical importance in sustaining the future of humanity."
--Jennifer Morris, CEO The Nature Conservancy

"It was an inspired idea to write a 'biography' of water and Giulio Boccaletti has carried it off in style. His book is impressively global in scope. It ranges from the earliest human societies to questions of water security in our own time, combining bold lines of argument with compelling examples. Ambitious, assured and very well written, Water: A Biography is an impressive and very welcome addition to the literature."
--David Blackbourn, author of "The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape, and the Making of Modern Germany"; Cornelius Vanderbilt Distinguished Chair of History, Vanderbilt University.

Water: A Biography chronicles a rich and fascinating story of how the intrinsic power of water has exerted itself over empires, economics, politics and human survival. What enhances the reading experience is an opportunity to rediscover human history itself but with a dimension that was missed in most people's wider learned history. What it makes clear is that water's influence has delivered many lessons across millennia, and often recurring lessons--making this book also about the future. As someone who has devoted a career to water-related issues it was remarkable how much this book still revealed to me about where we have been and where we are going.
--Gary White, CEO& Co-Founder, Water.org

Boccaletti takes water deadly serious. For him water is bigger than life, bigger than anything else. It is our past, present and future. Moreover, water has always been, and will always be political. Water exacerbates our vulnerabilities and drives our vested interests to conflictional proportions. And water drives our actions, paralyzes us while--at all scales, times, and decisions--it becomes larger than anything else. That could be overwhelming, even too much or big to connect to. But, Boccaletti takes a people's, even very personal and passionate perspective. Taking the reader literally by the hand, going back through the ages and being our best water-travel guide and companion: Giulio is your best friend in a stormy water-world.
--Henk WJ Ovink, Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of The Netherlands Sherpa to the UN/WB High Level Panel on Water

Water: A Biography takes an expansive look at the ways in which this vital resource has shaped the history of societies and their institutions over thousands of years. It provides essential reading for those seeking to explore how humanity's relationship with nature has influenced the development of legal and political systems and offers invaluable insights into current debates surrounding climate change and sustainability. I couldn't recommend it more highly.
--Lee C. Bollinger, President and Seth Low Professor of the University, Columbia University

Giulio Boccaletti takes the most prosaic thing on the planet, water, and rebrands it. Yes, it's the source of all life, but in this deeply researched and vivid story, he deftly reveals how the struggle to master water is also the root of all organized society. From antiquity to today's precipice of water scarcity, he spins a dramatic, sweeping story that forces the reader to reappraise civilization, politics, and all of human history through a water lens. It is a riveting view where humans and water are inextricably linked in what Boccaletti describes as "a precariously balanced dance from which neither can be freed". A transformative, dramatic and revelatory tale of how our struggle to master water, from antiquity to today, defines us as humans.
--John Bredar, Vice-President for National Programming, GBH