Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
by Marc Reisner
Description
A sweeping history of how dams, aqueducts, and river diversions transformed the arid American West into a center of cities, farms, and industry, this book examines the political ambitions and federal spending behind that transformation. With vivid storytelling and meticulous research, it reveals how rival agencies, powerful developers, and water-rights laws shaped a region where access to water often depended as much on money and influence as on geography. Alongside its portraits of the visionaries and power brokers who remade the landscape, the book explores the ecological costs and economic contradictions of growth built on an apparently limitless water supply. Its warning about the limits of desert development remains especially resonant in an era of drought, shrinking reservoirs, and intensifying competition for the West’s disappearing water.
Available Editions
paperback
Penguin Books
Published Jan 1, 1993
582 pages
ISBN: 9780140178241
Reviews
No ratings yet. Be the first!
No written reviews yet.
Details
First Published
1986
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner.