Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised EditionPenguin, 1 juin 1993 - 672 pages “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. |
Table des matières
A Semidesert with a Desert Heart | 1 |
A Country of Illusion | 15 |
The Red Queen | 52 |
First Causes | 104 |
An American Nile I | 120 |
The GoGo Years | 145 |
Rivals in Crime | 169 |
Dominy | 214 |
An American Nile II | 255 |
The Peanut Farmer and the Pork Barrel | 306 |
Chinatown | 332 |
Those Who Refuse to Learn | 379 |
Things Fall Apart | 435 |
A Civilization if You Can Keep It | 477 |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water Marc Reisner Affichage d'extraits - 1987 |
Expressions et termes fréquents
acre-feet acre-foot acres agricultural Angeles aqueduct aquifer Basin began bill Blue envelope build built Bureau of Reclamation Canal Canyon Dam Carter Central Arizona Project Central Valley Project Colorado River Columbia Commissioner Congress conservation Corps of Engineers cost crops Department of Water desert District diversion dollars Dominy's drought Eaton economic environmental farm farmers federal feet fish flood flow Floyd Dominy Fred Eaton going groundwater growers Hohokam Hoover Hoover Dam huge hundred Idaho Interior irrigation knew Kuiper Lake land later memorandum miles million acre-feet Missouri mountains Mulholland nation Nevada never North Otis Owens River Owens Valley Pacific Pat Brown percent plains Powell pumping region reservoir Roosevelt Sacramento salmon Salt San Francisco San Joaquin Valley Senator silt South southern California subsidized surplus Teton Teton Dam Texas thing thousand Udall wanted Water Project Water Resources Watterson western William Mulholland wrote