H-2-Oh Snap

Water : the epic struggle for wealth, power, and civilization by Steven Solomon is all about how settlements and their relationship to water have helped shape society. And this isn’t a “They built it by a river!” lame account of what should be obvious to anyone who has ever been thirsty. This actually goes into detail about dynasties collapsing based on unrest related water, how the Nile’s flood patterns effected their political relations, and how modern civilization is yet to tap into some of these strategic advantages of their water supplies.

And, since I mainly seem to feature books that scare the crap out of me, it is worth noting that it also concludes with a heavy-handed warning that we’ll run out of water and everyone will die.  That’s an over-simplification of the message, but the author does emphasize that something must be done as water supplies grow more scarce.  That being said, he seems to focus on strategies to make one’s nation superior during times of scarce water as opposed to “How to make more water”, but it doesn’t make it any less interesting.