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Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition
by: Marc Reisner

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.9100978
EAN: 9780140178241
ISBN: 0140178244
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: January 01, 1993
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sales Rank: 3979
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)

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Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Newly updated, this timely history of the struggle to discover and control water in the American West is a tale of rivers diverted and damned, political corruption and intrigue, billion-dollar battles over water rights, and economic and ecological disaster. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Amazon.com Review:
The definitive history of water resources in the American West, and a very illuminating lesson in the political economy of limited resources anywhere. Highly recommended!

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Great Read
This book covers an issue that many people are probably aware of but have no idea to what extent this problem reaches. Much of the Western United States, particularly the Southwest and California, is located in a desert ecosystem that gets less than 10 inches of rain per year. The chapters of this book cover a broad spectrum of topics pertaining to water problems in the west. The rapid depletion of the streams and rivers, the history of human life in the west, the environmentally harmful effect that humans have had on the hydrosphere, and the political struggles from state to state over water rights are just some of the important topics touched on by the author, Marc Reisner.
The growth of the west, especially the booming populations of Phoenix, which went from a population of 65,000 in 1940 to 439,000 in 1960 (p. 269), San Diego, and Los Angeles, which was "growing like a gourd in the night" (p. 129), ... Read More

Rating:

- Outstanding
This was an outstanding book. Filled with a lot of information I had only partially known, and seldom understood. The story of thousands of dams built for no reason other then to keep two Federal agencies in business. Some success and some death causing failures. A must read for anyone west of the Mississippi with a interest in the historical infrastructure of the western states despite the massive mishandling of Federal funds to aid in ecological disaster. A true study in government math at alludes us all.

Rating:

- Ahead of its time
This was a return engagement to "Cadillac Desert", as I had read the original in the 1980s, amazed at the time, considering it a premier example of thorough history and analysis in a subject about which few people knew much at all. What could have been a "dry" subject was actually quite gripping and informative, and fortunate to have many participants in key moments still available.

In that sense the author was ahead of his time, documenting essential history that looks all the more important twenty years later. No doubt the book would still be fresh history to many, especially if supplemented by some other source on more current topics. I can only imagine what Mr. Reisner would think of the explosive growth of Las Vegas in the barren Nevada desert in recent years.

I finally got to the revised edition and certainly feel the loss of Marc Reisner, who would have had plenty of material for another ... Read More

Rating:

- Highly Recommended
Essential reading for anyone living in the American West or living in the East and subsidizing water rates in the West.

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