When you turn on the tap or twist the cap, you might not give a second thought to where your drinking water comes from. But how it gets from the ground to your glass is far more complex than you might think. Is it safe to drink tap water? Should you feel guilty buying bottled water? Is your water vulnerable to terrorist attacks? With springs running dry and reservoirs emptying, where is your water going to come from in the future? In Drinking Water, Duke professor James Salzman shows how drinking water highlights the most pressing issues of our time—from globalization and social justice to terrorism and climate change—and how humans have been wrestling with these problems for centuries. Bloody conflicts over control of water sources stretch as far back as the Bible yet are featured in front page headlines even today. Only fifty years ago, selling bottled water sounded as ludicrous as selling bottled air. Salzman weaves all of these issues together to show just how complex a simple glass of water can be.
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"I'd never thought about drinking water much (except to refuse to get caught in the bottled water craze). This book is quite thought-provoking - particularly related to the "clean drinking water as a human right" debate."
— Laura (4 out of 5 stars)
" The importance of water is simply not being addressed nationally in the USA . This book has really helped bring the issue forward "
— Edward, 11/13/2013" This is about the long history of the management of water. It turns out that the recent struggles over the privatization of water have a history going back millenia, with various approaches to private and public water management coexisting and conflicting from ancient Rome to modern New York. "
— Dale, 10/24/2013" I did enjoy this non-fiction but it was, pardon the pun, pretty dry. Very interesting that they focus on the NYC drinking water many times and especially as I was reading this as Superstorm Sandy was hitting NYC. "
— Wils, 10/2/2013" Not so much an overarching history as an interesting collection of water anecdotes and policy. "
— Paul, 10/1/2013" A brief overview of not only the history of drinking water, but also the logistics of today's water delivery systems and future problems facing the world. "
— Liz, 2/10/2013" Instant nap. "
— Awkwardlaughter, 1/10/2013" Absolute crap. Amateurish with an agenda. Waste of time and boring "
— Rob, 1/8/2013Teri Schnaubelt is a Chicago-based stage, on-camera, and voice actor as well as oil painter and photographer. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, she has voiced over a hundred books for New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, in addition to helping independent authors get their stories heard.