Cadillac Desert_ The American West and Its Disappearing Water - Marc Reisner [0]
PENGUIN BOOKS
Title Page
Dedication
Copyright Page
Introduction
CHAPTER ONE - A Country of Illusion
CHAPTER TWO - The Red Queen
CHAPTER THREE - First Causes
CHAPTER FOUR - An American Nile (I)
CHAPTER FIVE - The Go-Go Years
CHAPTER SIX - Rivals in Crime
CHAPTER SEVEN - Dominy
CHAPTER EIGHT - An American Nile (II)
CHAPTER NINE - The Peanut Farmer and the Pork Barrel
CHAPTER TEN - Chinatown
CHAPTER ELEVEN - Those Who Refuse to Learn ...
CHAPTER TWELVE - Things Fall Apart
EPILOGUE
Afterword to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgements
NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
Praise for Cadillac Desert
“The definitive work on the West’s water crisis”
—Newsweek
“Intelligent, provocative, and compulsively readable”
—Chicago Sun-Times
“The scale of this book is as staggering as that of Hoover Dam. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, it spans our century-long effort to moisten the arid West.... Anyone thinking of moving west of the hundredth meridian should read this book before they call their real estate agent.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“A masterful account ... among the best-read, most influential environmental books published by an American since Silent Spring”
—San Francisco Examiner
“A highly partisan, wonderfully readable portrayal of the damming, diverting and dirtying of western rivers”
—Washington Post Book World
“One of the triumphs of the year”—London Observer
“A revealing, absorbing, often amusing and alarming report on where billions of [taxpayers’] dollars have gone—and where a lot more are going ... [Reisner] has put the story together in trenchant form.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Well-written history and analysis, thoroughly researched and abundantly clear in its message”—Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Pugnacious ... Well-documented ... A compelling, cautionary tale, one that should be required reading for the federal bureaucracy”
—Chicago Tribune
“Sometimes startling, always perceptive ... Written in a style that pops and sparkles like a fresh mountain stream”
—Smithsonian
“Cadillac Desert is a book that no American concerned about the nation’s future can afford to miss.... A fascinating, stubbornly logical, expert analysis of the problems the American West has had in trying to capture and control enough water to supply its agriculture and growing population”—The Grand Rapids Press
“Thoughtful and sprightly ... Reisner’s book deserves to be widely read by political leaders, as well as environmentalists and just about anyone interested in water policies.... After reading Cadillac Desert, it is hard to be indifferent about the importance of water.”
—Christian Science Monitor
“Fascinating ... Reisner has an uncanny gift for mingling narrative with quotes, historical references, and even suspense.”
—Oakland Tribune
“A magnificent piece of investigative journalism ... Reisner documents how the unholy rivalry between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers led to the construction of dozens of wasteful, useless dams in the past sixty years.”
—Palo Alto Times Tribune
“An incredible story ... This timely and important book should be required reading for all citizens.”—Publishers Weekly
PENGUIN BOOKS
CADILLAC DESERT
Marc Reisner (1948-2000) was, in Jim Harrison’s words, “in the upper echelon of those defending the environment with conscience, intelligence and energy.” Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Reisner was a 1970 graduate of Earlham College in Indiana. A staff writer for the Natural Resources Defense Council from 1972 to 1979, Reisner received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship in 1979 to investigate water resources in the West. His book Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (1986) was acclaimed as the “definitive work on the West’s water crisis” (Newsweek) and went on to be nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Reisner was also author of Game Wars: The Undercover Pursuit of Wildlife Poachers (1991) and the posthumously