Elixir A History of Water and Humankind

Elixir: A Human Historyof Water spans 5,000 years, from the beginnings of civilization to the parched American Sun Belt of today. It is a story of human endeavor: our present-day interaction with this most essential resource has deep roots in the remote past, and every human culture has been shaped by its relationship to water. For the earliest hunter-gatherers, knowing where to find water was a matter of life and death; the "songlines" of Australia's Aborigines define the whole landscape as a map of sacred water sources. In many agricultural societies, from Africa to the rice fields of Bali, a communal "water philosophy" surrounds the precious resource with social traditions that preserve fair access for people upstream and down. The sweeping narrative moves from the Greeks and Romans, whose mighty acqueducts still water modern cities, to China, where emperors marshaled armies of laborers in a centuries-long struggle, still ongoing today, to tame the country's powerful rivers. Medieval Europe, and then the Industrial Revolution, brought ingenious new solutions to water management--but for the first time, turned water into a commodity to be bought, sold, and exploited rather than a natural force to be worshiped and husbanded. By the twentieth century, technology allowed the American desert to sparkle with swimming pools and lush golf courses--with little regard for sustainability. With his customary elegance and peerless scholarship, Fagan illustrates that the past teaches us that technologies for solving one or another water problem are not enough. From a practical standpoint, we still live at the mercy of the natural world. To solve the water crises of the future we may need to adapt the water ethos of our ancestors.

Brian Fagan was born in England and spent several years doing
fieldwork in Africa. He is emeritus professor of anthropology at the
University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of
Cro-Magnon, the New York
Times bestseller The Great
Warming, and many other books, including Fish on
Friday: Feasting, Fasting and the Discovery of the New World
and several books on climate history,
including The Little Ice Age and The Long
Summer.

"As always with Mr. Fagan’s work, the range is dazzling, the focus sharp and the pictures vivid...The author holds us with his glittering eye, as he conjures a vision of a world with water everywhere, nor any drop to drink."—Wall Street Journal  “Juxtaposes ancient and contemporary cultures’ veneration of water with the current commodification of it …Fagan is a passionate and lively writer.”—Los Angeles Times "… examines societies’ relationships with water since ancient times, and describes how the advance of technology has led to unsustainable management and depletion of our most valuable resource."—Chronicle of Higher Education  “It is hard to imagine industrial societies regaining some sense of water as sacred. The best we might hope for in the near term is a new-found respect for water. Reading Fagan’s book is an enjoyable way of gaining that respect, by taking a tour through the hard-won lessons of the past.”—Nature Climate Change “Eye-opening….making sense of water and its place in the development of civilization....[Fagan] understands how the ancients struggled with changing climate and that what matters has always been the fluctuating availability of water, rather than shifting temperatures. That is an important lesson for us now.”—Washington Post

“Supplying intriguing historical background, Fagan well informs those pondering freshwater’s role in contemporary environmental problems.”—Booklist

“Important and, from a New York Times best-selling author, accessible to all.”—Library Journal

"Fagan prompts an appreciation of water's centrality to civilization and of human ingenuity."—Publishers Weekly "A rewarding survey of water’s role in history and contemporary politics alike."—Kirkus  “Not just a fascinating book, but also an important one… [a] marvelous history… Don't take water or Elixir for granted. Give this important book a read—and then maybe send a copy to your local representative or senator.”—Mother Nature Network “At a time of increasing threats of regional ‘water wars,’ Elixir provides crucial temporal depth and worldwide scope to an emerging water scarcity crisis that we can no longer ignore. Fagan’s detailed examination of past use and abuse of water—highlighted by personal experience—makes his book not only a major source on the subject but, as usual, enjoyable reading.”—R. Gwinn Vivian, curator emeritus of archaeology, Arizona State Museum, author of The Chaco Handbook "[Fagan] is a beguiling writer and his lessons from global experience are both refreshing and sobering."—Daily Express (UK)  "A comprehensive look at the history of water control… there are places on the earth today where our water control systems are breaking down, and most of us don't yet recognize how devastating the effects of that will be. Elixir helps that realization… This book is one of the best pop science books I've read in a long time…there is much to reread and contemplate."—About.com