New Hampshire author James Rousmaniere discusses his book Water Connections, which explores what fresh water means to us and what we mean to water. Published in June 2019, the book covers water-related changes in technology, pollution, economic values, and ideas about nature from the Industrial Revolution to today.

Water Connections focuses primarily on New Englanders’ experiences with water, including floods and flood control, hydropower’s evolving technology, watershed protection, and citizen action in the cause of water protection. The book is as much about people as it is about water, with stories about conservationists, artists, reservoir managers, fishermen, scientists, and ordinary citizens around water.

After graduating from Harvard, Rousmaniere surveyed irrigation canals in southern India as a Peace Corps volunteer and then began a 43-year career in journalism. He reported on economics in the Washington bureau of The Baltimore Sun before being named editor and president of The Keene (NH) Sentinel, from which he is now retired.

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