Brian Fagan | Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22

New York Times bestselling author Brian Fagan visits with his new book Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind. Spanning five millennia, from ancient Mesopotamia to the parched present of the Sun Belt, Elixir shows that every human society has been shaped by its relationship to water—our most essential resource. In sweeping narrative, Fagan moves across the world, setting out three ages of water—the first, lasting thousands of years, in which water was scarce and sacred in almost every culture; the second, in which human ingenuity transformed water from a mystical force to an exploitable commodity; and third and present age, in which the water crises of the future may need us to adapt the water ethos of our ancestors.