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 -- 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 -- 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 -- 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.