The author tells the story of our most vital resource and how it has shaped our history, tracing three ages of water. The book spans five millennia, from ancient Mesopotamia to the parched present of the Sun Belt. As the author shows, every human society has been shaped by its relationship to our most essential resource. This narrative moves across the world, from ancient Greece and Rome, whose mighty aqueducts still supply modern cities, to China,...

"Despite its ferociously wet climate of monsoons and cyclones, Asia contains less usable freshwater than any continent except Antarctica. Nevertheless, more than half the world's population calls Asia home. The struggle for water has been a driving force in modern Asian history. In [this book], historian Sunil Amrith boldly reimagines Asia's history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas--and of the weather-watchers and engineers,...