A revelatory account of how water has shaped the course of human life and history, and a positive vision of what the future can hold—if we act now From the very creation of the planet billions of years ago to the present day, water has always been central to existence on Earth. And since long before the legendary Great Flood, it has been a defining force in the story of humanity. In The Three Ages of Water, Peter Gleick guides us through the long, fraught history of our relationship to this precious resource. Water has shaped civilizations and empires, and driven centuries of advances in science and technology—from agriculture to aqueducts, steam power to space exploration—and progress in health and medicine. But the achievements that have propelled humanity forward also brought consequences, including unsustainable water use, ecological destruction, and global climate change, that now threaten to send us into a new dark age. We must change our ways, and quickly, to usher in a new age of water for the benefit of everyone. Drawing from the lessons of our past, Gleick charts a visionary path toward a sustainable future for water and the planet.

Originally published in 1943, this book presents a study regarding the nature of prehistoric archaeology. The text discusses the common division of prehistoric human development into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, drawing attention to the value of this system and its potential limitations. Detailed textual notes are included throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in archaeology and prehistoric man.

The Noble Savage, earthly paradise, the original condition of human beings, cynicism, Christianity . . . "All of us men were born in the first man without vice, and all of us lost the innocence of our nature by the sin of the same man. Thence our inherited mortality, thence the manifold corruptions of body and mind, thence ignorance, distress, useless cares, illicit lusts, sacrilegious errors, empty fear, harmful love, unwarranted joys, punishable counsels, and a number of miseries no smaller than that of our crimes."—St. Prosper of Aquitania, quoted in Primitivism and Related Ideas in the Middle Ages This volume of essays, written by George Boas in collaboration with Arthur O. Lovejoy, was originally intended to be the second in a series of four documenting the history of primitivism and related ideas about goodness in the world. Covering the Middle Ages, these essays underscore the continuity between pagan and Christian cultures with respect to concepts of primitivism and examine the latter period's modifications of a group of favorite classical themes. They demonstrate the growth of primitivism and anti-primitivism from the first through the thirteenth centuries and include a discussion of such subjects as the Noble Savage, earthly paradise, the original condition of human beings, and cynicism and Christianity. They also, as Boas suggests in his preface, "drive the piles for a bridge between the Renaissance and Classical Antiquity, although the superstructure itself remains to be constructed."

Excerpt from The Three Ages of Progress All this the Three Ages of Progress places before the reader in a simple but attractive manner. For the proofs of the facts and the grounds of the deductions the student is to consult critical essays and ex professo histories; the ordinary reader will be satisfied with the knowledge of the portrayed events, which, he may rest assured, have been drawn from certified sources. The book is complete enough to make the Church appear, as she has been and as she is, the true continuation on earth of the Divine Teacher and Ruler of mankind, and to furnish arms with which to attack and defeat her enemies; it is not too large to pre vent its admission into the humblest households and into all libraries, parochial and private. We wish it all success both for the sake of our holy religion and as a reward of his labor for its humble but learned and zealous author. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.