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Cadillac desert : the American West and its disappearing water / Marc Reisner.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Penguin Books, 1993.Edition: Revised and UpdatedDescription: viii, 582 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 0140178244
  • 9780140178241
Subject(s):
Contents:
A country of illusion -- The Red Queen -- First causes -- An American Nile (I) -- The Go-Go years -- Rivals in crime -- Dominy -- An American Nile (II) -- The peanut farmer and the pork barrel -- Chinatown -- Those who refuse to learn ... -- Things fall apart -- A civilization, if you can keep it.
Summary: This history of water rights in the American West focuses on the political corruption and intrigue, including the rivalry between the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.s. Army Corps of Engineers.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 333.91 R377 Available 33111008523314
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"I've been thinking a lot about Cadillac Desert in the past few weeks, as the rain fell and fell and kept falling over California, much of which, despite the pouring heavens, seems likely to remain in the grip of a severe drought. Reisner anticipated this moment. He worried that the West's success with irrigation could be a mirage -- that it took water for granted and didn't appreciate the precariousness of our capacity to control it." - Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times , January 20,2023

"The definitive work on the West's water crisis." --Newsweek

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 ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark book, 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--an Eden that may only be a mirage.

This edition includes a new postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, that updates Western water issues over the last two decades, including the long-term impact of climate change and how the region can prepare for the future.

Maps on lining papers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 522-564) and index.

A country of illusion -- The Red Queen -- First causes -- An American Nile (I) -- The Go-Go years -- Rivals in crime -- Dominy -- An American Nile (II) -- The peanut farmer and the pork barrel -- Chinatown -- Those who refuse to learn ... -- Things fall apart -- A civilization, if you can keep it.

This history of water rights in the American West focuses on the political corruption and intrigue, including the rivalry between the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.s. Army Corps of Engineers.

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