Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition“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. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 15 | |
CHAPTER | 52 |
CHAPTER THREE | 104 |
CHAPTER FOUR | 120 |
CHAPTER FIVE | 145 |
An American Nile II | 255 |
CHAPTER NINE | 306 |
CHAPTER ELEVEN | 379 |
CHAPTER TWELVE | 435 |
EPILOGUE | 477 |
Afterword to the Revised Edition | 497 |
Postscript to the Revised Edition | 521 |
Notes and Bibliography | 571 |
CHAPTER | 587 |
Index | 610 |
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Common terms and phrases
acre-foot acreage acres agricultural American Angeles aqueduct aquifer basin began bill Brown build built Bureau of Reclamation Canal Canyon Dam Carter Central Arizona Project Central Valley Project Colorado River Columbia Commissioner Congress Congressional conservation Corps of Engineers cost crops Delta Department of Water desert diversion drought economic environmental farm farmers federal feet fish flood flow Floyd Dominy going governor groundwater growers Hohokam Hoover Hoover Dam huge hundred Idaho Interior irrigation Klamath knew Kuiper Lake Mead land later look Los Angeles Mexico miles million acre-feet Mulholland Nevada never North Owens Valley Pacific Pat Brown percent plains plant Powell pump rain region reservoir runoff Sacramento salmon Salt San Francisco San Joaquin Valley says Senator Sierra silt South southern California storage Straus subsidized Teton Dam Texas thing thousand tion Udall wanted Washington Water District Water Project Water Resources West western