Water Review: The Ebb and Flow of History – The Wall Street Journal

The trouble with water, Giulio Boccaletti reminds us in his sweeping Water: A Biography, is that it moves. Rivers flood; rain clouds drift away; oceans rise. When human beings lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers, we adapted by migrating toward dry ground or fresh sources of water. But once we settled into permanent farming communities some 10,000 years ago, our options narrowed and our relationship with water became more fraught.

Since we could no longer sidestep floods and droughts, we compensated with technology, building canals and dams to channel water toward where it was needed and away from where it could do harm. But marshaling such infrastructure entailed considerable labor, which had to be apportioned and coordinated. And so even as we remade the landscape, water helped shape civilization. The central argument of this book, Mr. Boccaletti writes, is that humanitys attempts to organize society while surrounded by moving water led people to create institutions, which tied individuals together in mutual dependence. Despite all the infrastructure, he maintains, the essence of our relationship with water has always been not technological, but political.

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Water Review: The Ebb and Flow of History - The Wall Street Journal