Acqua: Una biografia

by Giulio Boccaletti

Nel luglio del 2010 l’imponente diga delle Tre Gole, sul fiume Yangtze, resistette a un’eccezionale ondata di piena provocata dalle piogge torrenziali che per giorni avevano flagellato la provincia dello Hubei, nel sud-ovest della Cina. Per molti osservatori, la diga era la prova della vittoria dell’uomo sulla natura, l’emblema dell’emancipazione dai rischi e dalla variabilità del paesaggio idrico, il simbolo del progresso tecnico e ingegneristico. Per altri, invece, un’opera dall’elevato impatto ambientale.

La diga sullo Yangtze racconta però anche un’altra, straordinaria storia. Quella del rapporto tra l’uomo e l’acqua, della loro mutua dipendenza e del reciproco adattamento. Una storia millenaria di idee, credenze e istituzioni nate per garantire la sicurezza e il benessere delle popolazioni a fronte della forza distruttiva e nel contempo vitale dell’agente più potente del sistema climatico della Terra. Una storia in primo luogo politica, perché l’acqua in quanto res publica, bene comune, sfida la proprietà privata e richiede una gestione collettiva, un contratto sociale in virtù del quale regolare il conflitto tra le aspirazioni dei singoli e le esigenze della comunità.

Dalle antiche civiltà della Mezzaluna fertile alla Grecia classica, dalla Roma repubblicana all’impero britannico, dalla Guerra fredda all’età della globalizzazione, Giulio Boccaletti, uno dei massimi esperti di sostenibilità ambientale, ci guida alla scoperta di come la distribuzione di questa risorsa naturale abbia di fatto plasmato la civiltà umana, favorendo la nascita dello stato e delle sue istituzioni finanziarie, legali e commerciali, accompagnando lo sviluppo economico e caratterizzando la politica delle nazioni, e come, ancora oggi, nel cosiddetto Antropocene, definisca i termini del nostro rapporto con la natura e l’ecologia del pianeta. Un rapporto che si è fatto sempre più vincolante e che ci pone di fronte a domande ineludibili circa il destino di ognuno di noi.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Environment, Audiobook, Politics

480 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2022

Reviews

[Meg Coulson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thorough, but ironically dry.

[Dave Schoettinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the early part of the previous century British historian Arnold Toynbee suggested that Egypt developed one of the first civilizations on Earth because the challenge of taming the Nile River to agricultural needs was more than an individual or small group could accomplish. Therefore humans formed into a complex society in order to do all the work necessary to control the Nile so that it would irrigate their crops without destroying all their works with its annual flood. Toynbee may have gone too far in theorizing that the challenge of the Nile forced the Egyptians into a top-down authoritarian society in order to make sure everyone was on the same page and discourage free riding.

Although Giulio Boccaletti may not agree with Toynbee's analysis (or even have heard of him), he would definitely agree that humanity's grappling with the necessity of having sufficient (but not too much) water available has had significant impacts on the course of history. Although the dust jacket describes the author as a physicist and climate scientist, in this book he presents a history of the world through focusing on mankind's attempts to control its water environment. It is often refreshing to read history presented by non-historians, and Boccaletti's effort is no exception. He relates a number of interesting facts and historical connections that are pertinent to the story of water, but not particularly relevant in a general history.

Although I remain a little skeptical about some of his water-related connections (Did drought in Russia really contribute to the Arab Spring?), I am sure I will recall this book each time I pass a dam or canal.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is as I always knew it was... WATER is the driver of mankind. I mean, after all, without water would man even exist? I don't think so.

This is a brilliant history of water and its evolution into the foundation of civilization. Quite interesting but if you aren't a super fact-driven person, then it might get redundant. For information it was a 5 star read, for holding my attention it was only 4!

4 stars

Happy Reading!

[Pauline Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always known water is life. I really hadn't given any thought to the economic or political value of water. When managed responsibly and strategically, water can also create great wealth and politic power. This is an eye opening read about something most of us take for granted.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells history through water. From Egypt, Rome, Greece, China, India, Panama, Europe, Americas, etc, the author connects political and societal decisions with water management. Some parts are a little dry (ha,ha), but overall this book is fascinating and thought provoking. It was interesting reading about wars, conflicts and collaboration told through a resource and how those events impacted now.

[Rohit Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall review

Mr. Giulio Boccaletti’s “Water: A Biography” is an all-encompassing ode to the role water has played in the development of the human civilization especially in the last 10,000 years. In nearly 400 pages (minus the bibliography), he starts with the role water played in the rise and fall of mighty Ancient civilizations of Rome, Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, China etc. The book then comes to the medieval ages before jumping on to the modern times.

Examined indepth is the role of United States (the Tennessee Valley Authority) in spreading its expertise in the global development of water resources during the 20th century, the geopolitics surrounding water resources and lastly, the emergence of China as a formidable power of the 21st century and its role in developing water resources in the African continent.

Mr. Boccaletti is a physicist and a climate scientist having worked / been associated with marquee institutions like the NASA, Oxford University, Princeton University and being a Partner at Mckinsey. His background and expertise in this area shows up in the distinct approach he uses in this book, mixing economics, anthropology, science and politics at the same time to acquaint the reader with the role of water in our history.

This comes out especially well in paragraphs like these:

“If the energy used in the global economy—all transport, power plants, homes, heating systems were one unit of energy, then the water cycle of an average hurricane releases roughly one unit, the Asian monsoon about ten units, and global annual precipitation several thousand units. Water overwhelms humanity.”

Who should read this book?

The history of human civilization is closely related with water sources. All major cities of the ancient world flourished either on the river banks or closer to the sea. Many ancient cities and monuments have vanished or submerged due to the climate change. And it is this exact relevance that makes this book an engaging read for everyone interested in reading about ecology, climate change or environment in general.

The book will be particularly engaging for readers of non-fiction genre who like the intermingling of science, history and environment coupled with hard facts. This book is a perfect companion to other books of related categories. For instance, Sanjeev Sanyal’s “Land of Seven Rivers- A brief History” makes a good match.

What works for this book?

Mr. Boccaletti never limits his book to any particular geographic area. It spans the entire fabric of our civilization, be it in the west, east, old world or the new world. The chapters are crisper in length and the book is finely divided into four parts – (i) Origins (ii) A thousand years of convergence (iii) The Hydraulic Century (iv) finale. Explored at length is the geography of the Nile, Mississippi, Yellow River, Yangtze and other mighty rivers.

The author is quite successful in explaining the role of water in key events of the human history like major revolutions, industrial age and the chaotic development of the post war world.

Some missing elements

While the positives overwhelmingly outweigh the negatives of this book, there are some gaps that I fill are major ones. First, there is hardly any reference to the mighty ancient civilization of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro. Being an Indian, I felt this should not have been the case, especially because this civilization’s decline is specifically attributed to the climate change. Second, Latin America is entirely missing from the narrative.

There should have been more references to the Amazon River basin, considering that it is the second largest river in the world.

Another question that may come up is whether the book focusses too much on the Roman civilization or the western world in general. But this can be shrugged off to an extent because the western countries played a major role – whether good or bad.

I rate this book 4 out of 5.

[Ruari Waters · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping, based on the authors experience as an expert on resource scarcity and environmental sustainability that this book would be looking at the environmental impact on humanity’s relationship with water over time. Instead, this book turns out to be a very vague history of water projects. The book never really provides any more specific details on any given project than a Wikipedia article might provide. Honestly I found the author often overreaching the bounds of his expertise when it comes to critiquing how nations chose or did not choose to manage their water system. He also fails to mention the impacts of colonialism on a nations given ability to manage their own water. Pretty disappointing read over all.

[Bruno Sánchez-Andrade · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if water defines humanity? It is a tall order to argue that something as mundane and malleable as water has played a critical defining factor of history, civilization, landscape, weather, and it's fates. Yet this book is exactly that. More than a descriptive biography, it's a thrilling narrative that travels across space and time, indeed from the big bang to the end of the universe, and from China to Irak and Europe.

[John Calhoun · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tries to trace how water, and the need to control/harness it, impacted human history, from 5000BC through today. Just too much ground to cover inexpertly.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author clearly has a deep knowledge and interest in the subject matter, and he relates many interesting facts and anecdotes in this book. Unfortunately, these often felt like isolated snippets and did not build a clear narrative arc. This made it a bit harder to read this, as I was often left asking myself why the author had taken me down another rabbit hole. There is good information here, it just needed more structure. The casual reader may lose interest, but if you are a serious history or policy nerd, you’ll probably enjoy this.

[Alex Givant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good idea, bad implementation.

[Cody · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giulio Boccaletti provides an overview of history with a focus on water’s role. In the end it provides an adequate superficial review but if you are looking to go deeper into this topic this book will not do the job on its own.

[Kennedy! · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay... this is just a high school "world history" textbook-- complete with the single chapter of lip service to "mandate of heaven" Ancient China and reams and reams of Greek and Roman fixation. When I was a sophomore in high school I would've found this fascinating just by virtue of the fact that I had never been exposed to ANYTHING yet. It's fine to follow the traditional western canon of obsessions and selective focus/blindness if that happens to be your niche, but don't pretend to be comprehensive. Just call it what it is. Western empire fop material. I love classical studies! I read Anne Carson and Mary Beard religiously. It's not "world history" if it only focuses on the Mediterranean until the establishment of the American empire, when it sharply switches lens to predictably, America as the center of the western canon. Interesting enough from that angle, but far, far, far from inclusive and lightyears from comprehensive.

Additionally, similarly to a hastily written high school paper, the premise of the book didn't really seem to have much bearing on the actual content aside from the extremely repetitive introduction and "thesis" points of each section. The rest of it was just, the typical laundry list of historical dates and figures and events without any angle or argument to be seen. I suppose I was just expected "to be thinking about water" while I re-read my textbook.

[Alli · Rating 3 out of 5]

14 hour audio book read by the author. Was this very detailed and researched book incredibly boring? Yes. Very yes. Did I learn a lot from this book? Also yes.

I enjoyed the very beginning discussing how water was harnessed in ancient times and so began farming and subsequently civilization. I also enjoyed the last hour discussing his climate change is starting to affect how we manage water. I never really thought about the political aspects of water projects such as dams and hydro electric power, which of course affect politics but it’s not sometim I connected in my mind.

The middle part of the book mostly discussed major water projects around the world which wasn’t very fascinating to me. I was however, hanging on every word when the topic of climate change and it’s effects came up. The author cited two instances of how flooding affected two different countries and the outcome. I wanted more of that especially since these aren’t subjects covered by the media.

All in all, an interesting perspective of historical civilization to modern times, with (a lot of) boring bits mixed in.

[Sully Augustine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried to read a hardbound from the library out of interest in the subject matter, but abandoned it after struggling through a couple of chapters. At first I thought it was a bad translation because of the Italian sounding name of the author; but have now decided it was purposely written in Academian, an obscure dialect of English spoken only in faculty lounges and generally seen only in obscure journals.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is DENSE. In some good ways and some not-so-good ways. It was a bit more detail than I was looking for around the history of civilizations and water.

Here are a few of my favorite clips:
Sedentary agriculture changed human society. Most natural ecosystems do not maximize digestible calories for humans, but farming can.

Salinization is a process by which the magnesium, calcium, and sodium found in water accumulate in soil, binding with clay and making the soil impermeable. In those conditions, plants struggle to germinate, and roots fail to absorb nutrients.

The Mississippi is a gigantic river basin, covering 40% of the modern continental U.S. Its drainage is almost 3 million square kilometers, comparable to the size of India. Only the Amazon and Congo river basins are bigger. One of the consequences of such a wide, dendritic system is that the river intercepts many climates, from winter rains, to snowmelt, to summer rains, all happening in different parts of the basin. As a result the flow in the lower river can be highly variable. Peak floods can carry thirty times the water of low flow.

The flood of 1927 was the worst in American history. In the end, it inundated 7 million hectares of land, killed about 500 people, and left seven hundred thousand homeless. Its damages were equivalent to a third of that year's U.S. federal budget.

Mussolini turned to the impoverished south, where there was no organized labor, and he could rely on the landowners to control the rural population. Exploitation of farm laborers reached depths of inhumanity seldom witnessed in twentieth-century Europe.

In the early thirties, a severe drought hit the Great Plains right as grain price collapsed in the wake of the Depression. It was bad timing. The Dust Bowl had started. Overextended farmers went bankrupt. Land was abandoned at the same speed at which it had been developed. As farmers left their properties, the exposed topsoil baked and pulverized in the drought. The winds of the Great Plains then lifted up the dust into huge black blizzards, big enough to block the sun, worsening drought conditions further. When cold air from Canada and warm air from the Dakotas swirled over the plains igniting storms, the atmosphere became a huge planetary vacuum cleaner, sucking up into the sky hundreds of thousands of tons of dirt in squalls hundreds of miles wide and thousands of feet tall.

In 1930, only 10% of farms had access to electricity.

[In regard to Mao and China] ---> The commitment to water projects was so substantial that it become the primary drain of labor from the farms. Between 1958 and 1959 an estimated hundred million peasants were assigned to dig canals and other irrigation projects. The drain of labor from the field meant that when harvest came there was no one to collect it and it remained to rot. By early 1958 one in six people were digging to transform the landscape of the nation. Six hundred million cubic meters of rocks and soil were moved during that year. The human cost of these efforts was enormous. One estimated suggested that for every fifty thousand hectares under irrigation, a hundred lives were lost.

During the 20th century, inspired by the success of the model republic of the modern age, most rich societies replumbed the planet to insulate their citizens from the impact of the planet's climate and give their economies a comparative advantage. To do so, they harness the power of water while allowing everyone to live their lives at the sole beat of industrialization. For all intents and purposes, in wealthy countries at least, the climate system had mostly disappeared from people's lives. Never before had water always been available, when and where needed, and always of a quality fit for its purpose. Never before had people been able to move around the landscape unimpeded, going about their technology-laden day, streams paved over, rivers contained, and all floods avoided. But while technology has changed people's relationship to climate, the thousands of years of layered institutions, which have defined the relationship between society and water over time, continue to play the dominant role in shaping the outcomes.

The deepest tension: That of a sedentary society trying to live together while negotiating a world of moving water.

The story of water is principally a story of political institutions.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first section of this was great. As soon as I got to the section about politics I began drowning in jargon. It's hard to get into it when I have to stop every other sentence to look up the meaning of a word. Too bad the writing is so pretentious and inaccessible because the part I did finish (part 1, origins) was enjoyable and fascinating.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanksgiving book club pick. Will write a review after our book chat.

[Jason]

"Water" is, ironically, a dry read.

I picked it up hoping to learn about the science and history of water on our planet. Instead, Boccaletti focuses on how water has affected human development and geopolitics. If that topic interests you, then Boccaletti has researched it as deeply as anyone ever will.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

“If the energy used in the global economy—all transport, power plants, homes, heating systems—were one unit of energy, then the water cycle of an average hurricane releases roughly one unit, the Asian monsoon about ten units, and global annual precipitation several thousand units. Water overwhelms humanity.”

Some snapshots of the vast, overwhelming history of humanity’s usage of water, more about politics that I expected and gets pretty boring in those areas. It also felt like a Eurocentric, colonial viewpoint that was disappointing. The scientific parts weaves through the history was interesting, so worth a try for history buffs.

Technological progress and people’s emancipation from nature are a secondary theme in this story. The effects of humanity’s ongoing relationship with water are not merely written in rivers. They are etched into the fabric of society, into the beliefs, behaviors, and systems that regulate everyday life. What is most engineered is not landscape, but political institutions.

The central argument of this book is that humanity’s attempts to organize society while surrounded by moving water led people to create institutions, which tied individuals together in mutual dependence as they tried to deal with their environment. Such a millennial story is not just an account of events and physical constructions. It is a story of ideas. In fact, it is impossible to explain the former without the latter.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, humanity has become a force on the planet so powerful that some have renamed this era “the Anthropocene.” But that has not heralded the conquest of nature. Far from it. The profound modifications inflicted on the planet have tightened, not severed people’s relationship with water. The increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere is having a measurable impact on the energy balance of the planet, modifying Earth’s water cycle.

But Earth could not have begun its existence covered in water as it is today. The inner solar system, the portion closest to the Sun in which Earth coalesced four and a half billion years ago, was too hot in its early phase for liquid water to survive on the surface of a planet. So, whatever water is found on Earth today must have either arrived after it cooled (carried by asteroids) or been released as vapor from the planet’s interior. Either way, the amount of water on Earth has been fixed ever since.

What drives ice ages are small, periodic variations in the planet’s orbit around the Sun and in the tilt of its axis, which in turn modify the amount of energy reaching Earth. Why and how relatively small changes in sunlight would result in such an enormous response is still a matter of substantial debate. But in almost all explanations, water itself plays a crucial role. Water vapor acts as an enormous blanket over the planet, trapping outgoing heat: it is the principal greenhouse gas. Of all the forms in which water exists on Earth, by far the most fundamental is water vapor, for it is thanks to its presence in the atmosphere that the planet is habitable.

The population of Homo sapiens swelled in Africa around 130,000 years ago, between the last two ice ages. It ultimately replaced all hominid species: erectus, heidelbergensis, and neanderthalensis. However, any evidence of human culture—anything beyond mere existence, that is—has reached modernity almost exclusively from the last twenty thousand years, right when the planet was leaving the Last Glacial Maximum.

By 5000 BCE, sedentary farming was established, various forms of proto-writing had developed, and complex societies were well on their way. So, the years between roughly 18,000 BCE and 5000 BCE were not just years of great change for the water landscape. They were also critical for humans to set themselves up as organized societies.

Earth is the only planet in the solar system to have a particular combination of mass and distance from the Sun, which produces average temperatures and atmospheric pressures that keep the planet close to water’s triple phase point, the temperature and pressure at which liquid water, ice, and vapor coexist in precarious equilibrium.

If one had to design the perfect molecule to transfer energy on Earth, water would be it. These phase transitions power the weather phenomena that shaped the development of the first fragile, sedentary communities.

Water myths are abundant in Chinese culture, and have captured the role of the water landscape in Chinese identity. One Chinese myth tells of how the world formed from the body of a giant, whose blood and veins turned into water and rivers. In another, the Jade Emperor, Lord of Heaven, entrusted four great dragons to bring rain to the people. Their names were Long, Yellow, Pearl, and Black. After they disobeyed him, he entrapped them in mountains, so the dragons turned themselves into rivers, becoming the Yangtze, Yellow, Pearl, and Amur Rivers, the great historical sources of water for agriculture. These are the cultural traces of the great East Asian monsoon.

Stories from the past reflected the concerns of societies dealing with the overwhelming power of water. For example, floods are exceedingly common as a foundational myth. The Lenape, the original inhabitants of Manhattan, were believed to be descendants of the survivors of a great deluge who had escaped by riding the back of an ancient turtle while following a bird to dry land. The Navajos believed they originated from Insect People, chased away by gods that sent water to cover the land, and who had been guided by a swallow in their escape. Both found in the story of water a powerful source of identity.

Cuzco, they learned of the Unu Pachacuti flood, which covered the land around Quito.
Maya populations left accounts of a mythical flood that destroyed the race of men and established a new order. In Scandinavia, the Old Norse frost giant Bergelmir was the only one to survive a destructive flood, saving himself and his wife by boat. Even the aboriginal societies of Australia, isolated on the continent for fifty or sixty thousand years, in their ancient songs told of a time when much of the coast was dry land, and of how the waters came to cover it. It is unlikely that these flood myths all refer to an actual, synchronous memory, for example that of the melting of the Last Glacial Maximum. But such a wide canon of evocative water-related stories is an indication of just how traumatic those adjustments must have been for early societies.

It told an episode of an Akkadian epic in which its protagonist, Gilgamesh, had set out to find the patriarch Utnapishtim, “the faraway.” When he found him, Utnapishtim told Gilgamesh of how he had saved himself from a destructive flood by building a vessel, of how he had received a divine mandate to save animals, of the endless floating, of a dove sent out to seek land, of landing, finally, on the mountain in Urartu.

In the Tale of Sinuhe, a text from the nineteenth century BCE, Sinuhe, a former servant to Pharaoh Amenemhat I, went into exile at the death of his king. He was gone for many years, becoming a wealthy man and the chief of a Bedouin community. But, in a final, moving invocation in his old age, Sinuhe did not long for a city or a community. He longed for Egypt, the land of his birth. Egypt, the nation. A story that had started from a peculiar distribution of rainfall in the tropics had led a society to develop its highest abstraction: identity.

The stories of deep antiquity reveal a generative dialectic between water and society, one that shaped social organization, the state, and even early forms of international relations. Yet, the distribution of water influenced not just formal institutions, but also more intimate, abstract beliefs. Beliefs are important to this story because they outlive infrastructure, and survive changed institutions.

The story of water does not end here. It will continue to evolve, driven by its deepest tension: that of a sedentary society trying to live together while negotiating a world of moving water. Ever since the first communities wrestled with water as it streamed down from retreating glaciers—ever since people began telling stories about it—water has been the dominant agent in people’s relationship with the environment.

The Grand Canal in China, still the longest in the world, was dug between the seventh and the thirteenth centuries CE. The Cloaca Maxima, part of the current sewer system of Rome, dates from the sixth century BCE. Lagash’s canal between the Tigris and the Euphrates is full of water after over four thousand years.

[BUG · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this entire book, and racked up library fines because almost immediately it became clear that this was a horribly misnamed book and simply a retelling of your average western civilization 101 class. I wanted to be sure to see it through the end in case the author had something of merit to say.

He did not. Well, except for one and a half pages of fascinating and depressingly scant information about the indegenious people of south American before the Europen led genocide destroyed their culture and knowledge.

Except for that bit of interesting information this book was largely a disappointment,
And again, the title is so misleading!

I need to come back to this review to explain in better detail but for now I say that this is more a "biography" of CAPITALISM, it's a book about Western Civilization and the merits of capitalism, with an aside of how rivers and rain fall effected the origins of our *glorious* system of capitalism (via greece and later Rome) and how wealthy capitalist institutions continue to manipulate their access to rivers and rain. . .especially as it relates to hydroelectricity and river ports. . .also weather and climate and climate change is discussed. . .the author discusses climate changes through the ages of western history, and acknowledges the direness of our current climate crisis without spending much emphasis (any emphasis?) on the fact that our current climate disruption criss situation is human caused and could be averted. With the last chapter gives a 2010 summery of all the floods of that year related to climate change.

TL/DR
**********This book is a love letter to western civilization and CAPITALISM especially, with rain and rivers playing supporting roles at best. This author put a lot of *selective* research into belaboring many narrow minded opinions. Again, There was only a page in half of actual interesting information regarding the continent named South America.. .other countries were only discussed in their relationship to western Europe (primarily the "radicals" of Eastern Europe and China) and sub saharan Africa and North America only in regards to colonialism.

This is hardly a biography of the Earths water, by any measure. It's a biography of politics as viewed through a Western/ American lens.. .*********************

Complete waste of the late fees I racked up while slogging through this money grab of verbose claptrap. Save yourself the trouble and borrow someone's old Western civilization textbook from highschool or undergrad. Or find one at the library, because it will be just as informative and least clear about it's subject matter!

This is why academics get a bad name, one of my roommates dad was a history professor at an R1 university, and he once complained that his colleagues were simply trying to find new ways to say the same thing. . .i was a little to young to get it (and I was science major) but now I completely understand and feel that this is a real shame and missed opportunity.

[Daniel Peña · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lamento decir que este libro no me ha convencido. El autor hace el esfuerzo de explicar la historia del ser humano a través del agua, desde los orígenes hasta las primaveras árabes. Su narrativa no es mala, y los subcapítulos son tan cortos que apenas te da tiempo a que Boccaletti te aburra. Esto tiene una ventaja: que trata multitud de épocas y contextos, y una desventaja: que apenas profundiza en nada. En todo caso, tampoco se lo exijo al autor; de hecho, me he dado cuenta de que muchos de los temas tratados me resultaban indiferentes. También diré que hay otras partes que sí me han resultado interesantes: los inicios, las primera civilizaciones, la Guerra Fría, la AVT americana...

En todo caso, creo que el problema radica en otro aspecto: el teórico. No siempre queda claro qué tipo de Historia quiere hacer Giulio, ni cuál es el enfoque que realmente le interesa: político, institucional, social... Considero que esto se debe a que el autor no es historiador. Además, otro de sus grandes defectos es que muchas veces tiende a magnificar el papel del agua en los procesos históricos al tiempo que en otras ocasiones apenas encuentra el modo de introducir al agua en el relato.

En base a ello, Boccaletti ha montado una recopilación de historias sobre el agua que no están del todo mal, que sirve para aprender alguna cosa interesante y que permite al lector tomar conciencia, por sí mismo, sobre la importancia de este líquido en el devenir del ser humano. En fin, que la idea de la obra es buena, pero su ejecución no está a la altura de lo que podría.

[R G · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding, well researched book on a topic that has been crucial throughout human history. For the past hundred years or so, most of us in the developed world give little thought to the issue. We turn on the tap, and water appears. Humans controlled water. But climate change will make this issue become only more prominent. And, even in the last hundred years, there was much work to attempt to conquer the flow of water.
I originally hesitated to read this book, because I feared a tome where the author would explain all human history evolved in a path that could have been predicted on the basis of water. This history is much more nuanced. Boccaletti argues that "attempts to organize society while surrounded by moving water led people to create institutions, which tied individuals together in mutual dependence." He explains through historical examples that our relationship with water has been more political than technological, while noting that multiple political outcomes were possible.
After documenting the crucial historical role of controlling water to create food surplus and control the environment, he points out the change in the modern period in the developed world where most of us just assume that humans have conquered the environment. We are now entering an era where that assumption is about to be exposed, and understanding the history of where we have been is, as usual, a key element of figuring out where we are going.
I did love his description of world history and conflict through the lens of water management and creation of wealth through food surplus. Disruptions in water supply and catastrophes caused by our inability to completely control nature lead not only to short term damage, but also political change ranging from oppression to creation of new regimes.

During the next 50 years, the interplay of water with politics and freedom will likely be more prominent. This is a great book to explore that theme, and I wish this fine work would get more attention.

[Rachel Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating tour through history, politics, religion, trade, law, and markets from 10,000 B.C. to present day. Sometimes quite detailed, perhaps overly so. But, without the fine grain, the larger overarching themes of the cascaing consequences of water management between human societies throughout time would be lost.

I think my biggest takeaways were that water is a powerful force; no individual alone can hope to prevent floods, store and distrubte water, or capitialize from it economically. It takes large institutions w/ large resources allocation capabilities who may have to compete with other istitutions of different philosophies, political systems for the scare resource that makes makes our sedentary civilations possible (sustrained agriculutral surplus). Also, mass migration from climate disruption, famine has frequently contributed to the collapse of civilization (both the society that must flee and the society that is strained by absorbing their numbers) meaning water insecurity anywhere threatens civilization everywhere. We are all connected. Also, Also - in the developed world water has become almost invisible, a relable resource we can feel entitled too. What will happen societally as climate patterns dramatize scarcity and surplus areas in our lifetimes will be interesting as indiviual and collective inetrests are strained.

I will say sometimes his points seemed a bit of a stretch and some thoughts were started supposedly to be proven by historical example, but then not always satisfyingly warpped up in my opinion - occationaly vauge inferenes were made - Still, I learned alot and it altered how I think about a lot of things! Heads up though: dense. Kinda read it in three chunks over 6 mo. or so.

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

***Audiobook***

Water: A Biography is rather dry as far as books go.

OK, now that I've gotten that awful pun out of the way...

Water is a huge deal. It's probably the hugest deal on Earth and that's why I was drawn to a book about the role it has played throughout history. It's basically divided into three sections: ancient history, the middle ages and Renaissance periods, and industrialization to modern day. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two sections. They were a fascinating combination of science and history as we learned about the weather and flood patterns, primitive technologies, and how societies moved and changed due to the water around them. Unfortunately, the third section did not live up to the first two. The author completely stepped away from that interplay between science and society and instead it becomes a slog of political choices. He goes over the creation of several major dams without talking about the technology, the lives of the people around it, or really anything other than what political compromises were made. It makes it very dull to read.

Overall, I enjoyed this book but I wish the third part had been different. Perhaps the history is too close for perspective.

[Clogs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. I thought it was going to be a more f comprehensive look at water in a global scale but this really focused on water from the perspective of water engineering or large hydro projects. Which is interesting!

I had no idea of the scale of early hydro projects and how much we have been altering the environment for basically all of human history. Huge canals and waterworks to try and control rivers and farming from a super early time.

It’s a really interesting perspective on history. Water and managing water lead to the structure of our society and our institutions.

Natural events of water (like floods that were supposed to be controlled) lead to the destruction or failing of our institutions and contribute to or cause revolutions. Water revolutions. Like the water, they never stop, always flowing to the point of weakness.

As a side note, it’s very interesting reading about the water challenges in the Nile with Egypt with respect to the massive dam building happening in Ethiopia right now (one of the books, water towers of Africa).

Plus, obviously demonstrating the effect of water on the whole politics and structure and challenges of the Middle East was fascinating.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise is interesting. The history of the world as seen by water, mainly fresh water, and mainly rivers. The author traces a history of the world through this device. It works better in some places than others. Some cultures are ignored altogether (Mayans and others in Mesoamerica, for example). You learn a lot more about Po Valley hydropower than you might need in life, and the author is perhaps not coincidentally Italian.
Living in Colorado and having read several books about our misuse of water in the American West, the author here doesn't hammer that point home and at times seems to trumpet it. I don't know a whole lot about the TVA but it's framed as here as one of the seminal points of the 20th Century.
In sum, some good points and some ones that missed. The book could have used a sharper edit. Some words (dialectic is one) are overused. The first third also drags along. Still, an interesting take that is interesting once it hits the modern world.

[Linda Puente · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a lot of history over the years and I have to say this is the most comprehensive overview of historical processes that I have ever had the pleasure to read. Boccaletti makes a convincing argument that water in all its natural forms and uses is the driving force behind politics and has been from the very beginning of humanity. He explains how weather often upsets the best-laid plans for water management and brings the text right up to date with a clear explanation for why we have seen some of the most devastating floods in history in the 21st century despite efforts to prevent them.
While water is the theme of the book, I learned a great deal about political movements over time in areas that are often brushed over in other books, especially Africa and central Asia.
If you are one of those people that reads only one non-fiction book a year, this should be the one you choose this year!

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here we see the history of humanity as seen through the filter of an essential resource we can’t live without, water.

This was an interesting read if a little dry and places. Giulio Boccaletti is not the most enthralling writer I’ve ever come across but, my goodness gracious, this book is absolutely packed with interesting information that gives a new perspective on the forces that have shaped civilization from the beginning. The need to control and direct access to water continues to shape history to this day. The need to control and protect ourselves from unpredictable nature coming at us through water falling from the sky, turning meandering rivers into torrents, and filling the low places of the earth. We are in control until we’re not. Water sustains us and one day might be our undoing. Fascinating.

This was worth my time.

[Jeannette · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some authors who write nonfiction books manage to bring a particular subject to life. For example, the book on the Pacific by Simon Winchester. His chapters followed his subtitle: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers. I loved that approach, using special subjects to illuminate something huge. I also loved another one by a different author who wrote about the Atlantic by using historical and fascinating events.. Also a book just on Salt. Alas, this one on Water failed me. It just didn't make an important substance interesting. How could it not? Water is so critical, so valuable, so fascinating in all its forms! I was disappointed, bored, and ended skimming most the book.