{"product_id":"water-book-giulio-boccaletti-9780525566007","title":"Water","description":"\u003cb\u003eSpanning 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).\u003c\/b\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":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49504943636753,"sku":"GOR013735405","price":30.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49745266999569,"sku":"NGR9780525566007","price":22.79,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50093629505809,"sku":"CIN0525566007G","price":7.78,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50149413388561,"sku":"GOR013871239","price":139.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50410275340561,"sku":"CIN0525566007VG","price":8.53,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52522930635025,"sku":"NIN9780525566007","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0525566007.jpg?v=1751421461","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/water-book-giulio-boccaletti-9780525566007","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}