Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
"Beautifully written and meticulously researched."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This updated study of the economics, politics, and ecology of water covers more than a century of public and private desert reclamation in the American West.\ \ \ A study of the economics, politics, and ecology of water that covers more than a century of desert reclamation in the American West.\
Search in google:
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden--and Eden that may be only a mirage.
Introduction: A Semidesert with a Desert Heart Chapter One: A Country of Illusion Chapter Two: The Red Queen Chapter Three: First Causes Chapter Four: An American Nile (I)\ Chapter Five: The Go-Go Years Chapter Six: Rivals in Crime Chapter Seven: Dominy Chapter Eight: An American Nile (II)\ Chapter Nine: The Peanut Farmer and the Pork Barrel Chapter Ten: Chinatown Chapter Eleven: Those Who Refuse to Learn...\ Chapter Twelve: Things Fall Apart Epilogue: A Civilization, If You Can Keep It Afterword to the Revised Edition Acknowledgments Notes and Bibliography Index
