Originally published in hardback: New York, NY :Harper,c2010.

Includes bibliographical reference (p. [501]-564) and index.

Water in ancient history. The indispensable resource ; Water and the start of civilization ; Rivers, irrigation, and the earliest empires ; Seafaring, trade, and the making of the Mediterranean world ; The Grand Canal and the flourishing of Chinese civilization ; Islam, deserts, and the destiny of history's most water-fragile civilization -- Water and the ascendancy of the West. Waterwheel, plow, cargo ship, and the awakening of Europe ; The voyages of discovery and the launch of the oceanic era ; Steam power, industry, and the Age of the British Empire -- Water and the making of the modern industrial society. The sanitary revolution ; Water frontiers and the emergence of the United States ; The canal to America's Century ; Giant dams, water abundance, and the rise of global society -- The age of scarcity. Water : the new oil ; Thicker than blood : the water-famished Middle East ; From have to have-not : mounting water distress in Asia's rising giants ; Opportunity for scarcity : the new policies of water in the industrial democracies.

"A narrative account of how water has shaped human society from the ancient past to the present"--Provided by publisher.