Includes index.

Introduction: Mother McCloud -- The fountain of youth -- Who gets to drink? -- Is it safe to drink the water? -- Death in small doses -- Blue terror -- Bigger than soft drinks -- Need versus greed -- Finding water for the twenty-first century -- Afterword : a glass half empty/a glass half full.

The author, a professor at Duke University and an environmental policy expert 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. When we turn on the tap or twist open a tall plastic bottle, we might not give a second thought to where our drinking water comes from. But how it gets from the ground to the glass is far more complex than we might think. With concerns over pollution and new technologies like fracking, is it safe to drink tap water? Should we feel guilty buying bottled water? Is the water we drink vulnerable to terrorist attacks? With springs running dry and reservoirs emptying, where is our water going to come from in the future? This book shows just how complex a simple glass of water can be.