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.

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 revision or two. The additional material is a plus, although it, too, has been around long enough for either edition to be a worthwhile reference.

The growth of Los Angeles and the whole situation with the Owens Valley, San Fernando Valley, William Mulholland, the Chandlers, and so on, is exceptional, and can be read almost on its own. Perhaps there is a more definitive history, with more emphasis on some individuals or some other angle. Reisner packs a punch, laying it all out bluntly, including the fraud and corruption along with social and technical aspects.

Another favorite was the early history of the unexplored West, such as John Wesley Powell's prescience and his journey down the virgin Colorado. How much the region has changed in such a short time, and how extensive were our errors.

This is a first-rate history.

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

Cadillac Desert is a plodding book that spends more time making sideways remarks about its characters than establishing it's own narrative. Plagued by numerous typographical errors, it reads in fits and starts. While its message of government excess and because-we-can justification for modifying the natural landscape is surely worthwhile, if repetitive, the fact of the matter is that two generations of farmers, ranchers and urbanites in the American West looked to the Bureau of Reclamation as the only organization suited to develop their water resources. The dated material is noticeable at times--who but a civil engineer now knows of the Teton Dam failure? why the concern over the Central Arizona Project that has operated for nearly two decades?--and the treatment of the material is done with an eye toward stirring the reader's emotions more than informing them. Donald Worster's Rivers of Empire deals with much the same material in a more thorough and even-handed, though academic, manner.

This book was an alarming, eye-opening account of how the United States is running out of it's own water resources that provide for many of desert urban areas. Why is it that we are settling in areas that are not natural for us as human beings to live in, and depleting our water resources and damaging natural beauty in order to live in seemingly uninhabital areas, such as Las Vegas, and Phoenix? This book looks to address this and much much more. A great read for anyone interested in enviromental politics and issues in the U.S..

If you want to see how U.S. government policy and greed has encouraged the wasteful use of water in The West, this is the book you should read. Every politician should read this book so that more rational decisions are made with regard to our national resources. The book is well written and a joy to read even though the information provided will make you wonder why we as a nation are willing to sacrifice the future for our immediate short-term gains.

Water and power are the resources that everyone wants and needs. Cadillac desert is the story of the fight to control hydro electric power, flood control, water to the desert, and the battles between the bureau of reclaimation and the army civil corps.

Owen Valley project bring water for thousands in the Los Angeles Desert basin. The Owen Valley project illustrates how water became a commodity to be traded, managed, and sold. The Owen Valley project demostrates capitalistic strategy, innovation linking the water costs distributed also to the San Fernando Valley, capture water rights, and building dams using private money.

Government projects, Colorado river, the Nile of America, the construction of the Hoover Dam and the inspiration to build the Grand Coolee. Hydro electric dams provide the reservoir of water for the inhabitants of the desert. Selling the water and the electricity offset the cost of irrigation for the farmers. The Hoover Dam brought into control and subjugation the mighty Colorado with is million plus cubic foot flow and silt movement.

Klamath the second nile, the potential no usage of the thousands of acres of land, the destruction of seven cities, and numerous of possible scenarios of piping water to Los Angeles.

Controlling water is done by building reservoirs which accumulate the water; the resevoir must be built in a location where the maximum amount of run off water converges or other rivers intersect and water volume is high. Reservoir water storage is weighted against the transportation costs of the water to remote desert locations requiring tunneling through mountains, diversion through valleys, and siphoning from one water source into another. The cost to move the water often dictates where the source will be located.

Desalination is competing for the future. For example, Carlsbad, California is starting to build a $300 million water desalination plant. It will produce 50 million gallons of water a day, enough to supply water for 100,000 homes. World wide there are about 13,080 desalination plants producing more that 12 billion gallons of water a day.

As runoff slows and water from the Colorado becomes less reliable desalination becomes more feasible.

Poseidon plans to sell water for $950 per acre foot, 325,851 gallons of water; the plant estimates it will cost $1.10 per 1000 gallons of water to filter.

How does it work? 1. Seawater enters the plant and filters coarser particles, sand, sediment, and dirt 2. the pretreated water is force under high pressure through semipermeable membrane which separates the salt and minerals from the water 3. fresh water is store in a reservoir for usage 4. The concentrated brine residue is discharged back into the sea.

The book for me starts slow. The beginning overview that it provides was very helpful to frame the subject of water which is something many may take for granted. I believe the author has a very sophisticated way of writing. As an example I found this passage very interesting; "Everyone liked Sandy--he was amiable, a teddy bear, a sort of irrepressibly cheerful Mr. Micawber." Now if I hand not read Charles Dickens, "David Copperfield" I would not have understood what he was insinuating about this person. For a non-fiction book his building of characters was well done. The story of William Mulholland was interesting and well researched. His accounts of Floyd Dominy seemed bigger than life. And I would have liked to know more about John Wesley Powell. Although the book provides new insights into unrealized areas, the story at times seemed a little drawn out. What really brought it all back together for me was the afterword to the revised edition. It provides some hope for the future with a very human explanation of our governments short comings. Even through some slow passages, this books provides an excellent account of the history of water in the West.

This book is great because it is a technical book that reads like a novel; this makes it accessible to non-experts, all of whom should read it.

Loads of information and keep your dictionary at your side. Historic yet witty and engaging,

Or anyone thinking about moving/living west of the 100th meridian.

One of the best modern non-fiction books ever written, period.

AKA...those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. It's essential reading on the mismanagement of arguably our most critical resource: drinking water.

Meticulously researched and quite well written, it's rare to find a non-fiction book that can be classified a page-turner, but this it it.

The American experiment in democracy has degenerated into a plutocracy, in which wealth and power preempt democracy's ideals of equality and freedom [cf Kevin Phillips' Wealth & Democracy]. While Phillips gives a depressing history of the decline, and its corruption thru the centuries, Cadillac Desert focuses on perhaps the biggest corrupter of all - the sprawling water projects of the American West, in which water is diverted at huge cost to grow crops no one needs, all to support giant corporations that threaten to wipe out the family farms that were the rationale for the projects in the first place. Taken together, these books demonstrate that ideology or the party in power matters little - elections become a charade, masking the control of government by capital and its corporate controllers.

Many people often find history to be a boring subject, whether in school, as a TV show, or as dinner conversation. And within the broad subject of history, few are considered as boring as the topic of public works. Wars, great leaders, sex scandals, spy stories, and scientific revolutions are the common topics of history shows and history best-sellers. Yet so few history books are as entertaining or enjoyable as this tome from the now-deceased Marc Reisner. This book's subject matter is man's attempts to control water flow in the US west of the Appalachias. This includes dams, canals, reservoirs, river diversions, and numerous other public works projects related to water. Some mention is made of irrigation by Native Americans, but most of the text is on public works done in the 20th century by the US federal government, and occasionally some state governments. The book explores the politics (local and national) behind various dams and other projects, and shows how these human constructions affected local economies and ecologies. Names like Hoover Dam, Grand Teton Dam, Central Arizona Project, and San Joaquin Valley are covered here. The author also highlights key individuals involved in dams throughout US history; such as LBJ, Floyd Dominy, Carl Hayden, and John Powell.

The book's chapters flow in a chronological order, with some chapters backtracking in time to cover different regions of the US. The text itself flows quickly and is written very well with the author taking time to include comedy in the form of irony, shortsightedness and outright stupidity on the part of many public servants. Several black and white photos provide the only illustrations. The only drawback of the book is the paucity of maps. Many of the rivers mentioned in the text are not immediately recognizable to the lay reader. But all in all, I consider this one of the best history books of the 1990's.

In "Cadillac Desert," Marc Reisner tells the story of how the American West destroyed its rivers with unnecessary dams. Environmentalists are often accused of opposing economic growth, but Reisner shows that the dam-builders - - and not their opponents - - were the ones ignoring economic criteria. As a result of the "beaver complex" of the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, we have a bunch of money-losing dams providing subsidized water to grow subsidized crops at high prices.

In other words, the beavers destroy wealth and jobs at the same time they destroy rivers, wetlands, and Indian reservations. Indirectly, they also contribute to the farm crisis in wetter areas such as the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and the eastern seaboard.

It would be easy to unleash an army of econometricians to document the phenomenal waste of these dams. However, Reisner manages to provide us with an action narrative of these two out-of-control bureaucracies and a demented, pork-addled legislature. Let me repeat this, because it's the most remarkable feature of the book: an action narrative of two bureaucracies. The man can write.

He also gives us capsule biographies of leading figures - - including a full chapter on Floyd Dominy, the high priest of dam building. These people destroyed our rivers, not in the pursuit of growth, but in the pursuit of corporate welfare and back-room deals that move wealth around without creating any new wealth. Every environmentalist and anti-environmentalist needs to read the book.

In short, this is a riveting story, very well told. Not only is it highly recommended, but I join with many other reviewers in saying that this book should be required reading for all American citizens.

In "Cadillac Desert," Marc Reisner tells the story of how the American West destroyed its rivers with unnecessary dams. Environmentalists are often accused of opposing economic growth, but Reisner shows that the dam-builders - - and not their opponents - - were the ones ignoring economic criteria. As a result of the "beaver complex" of the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, we have a bunch of money-losing dams providing subsidized water to grow subsidized crops at high prices.

In other words, the beavers destroy wealth and jobs at the same time they destroy rivers, wetlands, and Indian reservations. Indirectly, they also contribute to the farm crisis in wetter areas such as the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys and the eastern seaboard.

It would be easy to unleash an army of econometricians to document the phenomenal waste of these dams. However, Reisner manages to provide us with an action narrative of these two out-of-control bureaucracies and a demented, pork-addled legislature. Let me repeat this, because it's the most remarkable feature of the book: an action narrative of two bureaucracies. The man can write.

He also gives us capsule biographies of leading figures - - including a full chapter on Floyd Dominy, the high priest of dam building. These people destroyed our rivers, not in the pursuit of growth, but in the pursuit of corporate welfare and back-room deals that move wealth around without creating any new wealth. Every environmentalist and anti-environmentalist needs to read the book.

In short, this is a riveting story, very well told. Not only is it highly recommended, but I join with many other reviewers in saying that this book should be required reading for all American citizens.

Really got me thinking and was filled with very useful, helpful, informative, but easy and simple to understand tricks. One of my favorites. A+

A beautifully written, thoughtful book about all aspects of western development and overdependence on the scarce water resources in our area. No less important today than the day it was written. Marc Reisner will be missed - he gave voice to this sort of issue like few others could.

A beautifully written, thoughtful book about all aspects of western development and overdependence on the scarce water resources in our area. No less important today than the day it was written. Marc Reisner will be missed - he gave voice to this sort of issue like few others could.

Putting to shame the politicians, bureaucrats, ideologies, and cultural ignorances that led to damming nearly every river in the West, this book is brilliantly written--a classic of environmental literature.

That's all that needs to be said. Please read this.

The importance and currency of this book is inversely and exponentially proportional to the (decreasing) amount of water in the Ogallala Aquifer. I.E. as the water supplies in the U.S. Southwest continue to decline and eventually disappear in the face of demands from Las Vegas (fastest growing city in the US) and Phoenix (everyone likes to live where it's hot), Southern California, and substantial agricultural interests, look out!

I read this book about 10 years ago during a two month driving/hiking sojourn through the SW.

What struck me most about the book was:

1. it is incredibly well researched; absolutely top notch - you learn about the issues, the people and the places important to the story of water in the U.S. (across the US, in fact, not just the SW) and how the story will spill across the Canadian border in the years ahead.

2. It is a darned good read. Some of the characters are larger-than-life and the author runs with it; it is very entertaining. The overall seriousness and importance of the topic is driven home and in no way is it sacrificed for cheap laughs.

3. a great education on the US Dept of Interior, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the amazing politics of water (dams, irrigation, dams, cities, dams, incredible canal systems, dams, etc.).

I can't recommend this book highly enough to anyone who has ever used a tap and thought for a moment where the water comes from and what would happen if all of a sudden it stopped flowing. Even if you've never had a drink in your life, read it!

My fellow Canadians are particularly encouraged to have a read and then wonder what may lie ahead for our water resources.

As a 25-year resident of the West, I had always understood water's importance but had always taken it for granted. This book explains both why it's so important and why government and agribusiness interests have made it so easy to take for granted. What I didn't really understand were the downsides of these activities, especially on the increasing salinization of the soil and the monumental subsidies that have been passed on to the ostensibly libertarian, free market agribusiness industry. I canme away from this feeling grateful that the desert has been made an oasis, but also understanding that this oasis may have a much shorter lifespan than I ever imagined. Extremely written and factually backed up through interviews with the prople who made all this possible, the book reads like a novel. Sometimes I wished it was fiction.

As a 25-year resident of the West, I had always understood water's importance but had always taken it for granted. This book explains both why it's so important and why government and agribusiness interests have made it so easy to take for granted. What I didn't really understand were the downsides of these activities, especially on the increasing salinization of the soil and the monumental subsidies that have been passed on to the ostensibly libertarian, free market agribusiness industry. I canme away from this feeling grateful that the desert has been made an oasis, but also understanding that this oasis may have a much shorter lifespan than I ever imagined. Extremely written and factually backed up through interviews with the prople who made all this possible, the book reads like a novel. Sometimes I wished it was fiction.

The author does a masterful job of detailing the history of water resource use and development in the west. The early part of the book is especially effective as the author details the exploration and conclusions that were made by John Wesley Powell regarding future development of the west. The story of Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley and the transport of water from the Sierras and Colorado to develop these areas is an important aspect of American history because of the geo-political and economic impacts of this development.

The author also does a good job of evaluating the cost/benefits of the water development of the west and who benefitted and who paid for those benefits. The story of Cadillac Desert is how a government bureaucracy sold water and hydro-electric power at highly subsidized rates to people who to this day posture about their self-reliance and the need to minimize government's role.

One chapter that is quite interesting is the one on Floyd Dominy. A fascinating and strong-willed individual, he got alot done at the Bureau of Reclamation, but did it recklessly and impacted the environment in the west in ways that will be felt for generations.

I recommend this book for everyone interested in the history of development of the west and the closing of the frontier. Though highly relevent now, those of us in the west sense that during the next major drought, this book will be even more so.

I've lived along the Colorado in Glenwood Springs, CO, and it's amazing to think of what happens to the water after it rolls by. This really should be required reading for every youth in the West living off the watersheds discussed in this book.

Marc Reisner explains just how the West is in danger of running dry in the not-so-distant future.

He not only looks at the Chinatown shenanigans of Los Angeles, but the "socialist" conservative farmers of the West, greedily and hypocritically guzzling federally-dammed irrigation water at 10 cents on the dollar.

And, Reisner's West includes the High Plains. Although not federall subsidized, of course, the water of the Ogallala Aquifer is being drawn down much quicker than the basin formed.

Reisner wrote the original edition in 1986, before global warmning concerns were on the radar screen. They still weren't high in 1993, the date of publication of his second edition.

His untimely death prevented a much needed third edition which would take that into account. However, this is an invalable resources just as it is.

Marc Reisner explains just how the West is in danger of running dry in the not-so-distant future.

He not only looks at the Chinatown shenanigans of Los Angeles, but the "socialist" conservative farmers of the West, greedily and hypocritically guzzling federally-dammed irrigation water at 10 cents on the dollar.

And, Reisner's West includes the High Plains. Although not federall subsidized, of course, the water of the Ogallala Aquifer is being drawn down much quicker than the basin formed.

Reisner wrote the original edition in 1986, before global warmning concerns were on the radar screen. They still weren't high in 1993, the date of publication of his second edition.

His untimely death prevented a much needed third edition which would take that into account.

Great history, very good read! We are living on borrowed time(water).

Patrick

This is an amazing book. The subject is not one that most people will consider interesting, but that is only because most people have very little knowledge about the subject and take for granted the easy and cheap access we all have to water these days. People who read this book will never feel that way again.

Growing up in Idaho and being surrounded by so many beautiful, free-flowing rivers, the occasional dams and reservoirs, and the myriad acres of irrigated farmland I wanted to know how everything fit together. I wanted to know why water wars were waged. I wanted to understand exactly what the fight between environmentalists and everyone else was really all about. I wanted to understand why Idaho's Snake River water was so coveted by California's authorities. This book could not have done a better job of informing me on all these and many other issues.

I will never forget the story of Los Angeles' water czar, William Mulholland, who, after visiting Yosemite National Park, stated that if he were in charge he would send photographers into the valley to shoot pictures day and night for an entire year. He would then publish the photos in books and send them to every library in the world. Then, Mulholland said, "I would build a great dam and stop all the goddamn waste."

Talk about scary! And many people in high places have that exact mind set today.

This is an amazing book. The subject is not one that most people will consider interesting, but that is only because most people have very little knowledge about the subject and take for granted the easy and cheap access we all have to water these days. People who read this book will never feel that way again.

Growing up in Idaho and being surrounded by so many beautiful, free-flowing rivers, the occasional dams and reservoirs, and the myriad acres of irrigated farmland I wanted to know how everything fit together. I wanted to know why water wars were waged. I wanted to understand exactly what the fight between environmentalists and everyone else was really all about. I wanted to understand why Idaho was even considering giving up some of its precious Snake River water to quench California's thirst. This book could not have done a better job of informing me on all these and many other issues.

I will never forget the story of Los Angeles' water czar, William Mulholland, who, after visiting Yosemite National Park, stated that if he were in charge he would send photographers into the valley to shoot pictures day and night for an entire year. He would then publish the photos in books and send them to every library in the world. Then, Mulholland said, "I would build a great dam and stop all the goddamn waste."

Scary!

If you are interested in what is now, and will continue to be, one of the most difficult issues in California, water use and misuse, this is an excellent book. It is well-written, easy to read and very imformative.
Cadillac Desert is full of insight and paints a clear picture of the complexity of how the semi-arid west was established as one of the most populous regions in the United States.
You don't have to be a college student- just curious, to get a lot out of the book.

It took Reisner 10 years to research the material for this book, and the result shows the careful work that he did prior to actually writing the book. It's such an interesting book because at times it is biography, at times geography, at times old west shooting war history: but always it is interesting and informative.

My only complaint is that his vocabulary is so brillantly huge, that I spent a lot of time in the dictionary.

Outstanding book.

For anyone living in the Western United States, this is a must read to understand the issues of water, the environment and politics. If we do not know our history, we are doomed to repeat it. It was bad enough the first time around. Let's us be knowlegeable and proactive to find a middle ground where multiple interests are met without aggrandizing one over the other.

The conventional wisdom presents the American West as having been settled by self reliant and independent folks who were and are conservative in their political beliefs and are dedicated to the conservation of nature. Marc Reisner provides convincing evidence that this perspective is seriously distorted given the highly subsidized water for irrigation provided through the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. It comes as little surprise that the silt and salt build-up from irrigation dams plus the rapid depletion of aquifers may render agricultural development eventually unsustainable, but that the economics of the infrastucture investment has been and continues to be poor is something of an eye opener. Although the book was first published in the 1980's, it remains relevant as a cautionary tale in light of proposals to tap water for the Southwest through diversion schemes involving the US Northwest, British Columbia and the Great Lakes.

This book merits its ranking as one of the top non-fiction writings of the Twentieth Century. However, the author may have underestimated the ability of the American West to continue to prosper based on diverting the available water to higher value uses and the economy shifting to alternative forms of development.

I read the book in high school and again in college. I can't say the entire thing is an easy read, but it was an absolutely fascinating and influential read for me. Reisner's book definately influenced my interest in water. I'll be starting a PhD in hydrogeology in the fall. It's not just for water nerds, though.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Even though this is about water policy, the stories told by Reisner should be required reading for anyone who wants to go into business or politics. This is fascinating reading, really enjoyable, and it teaches us how politics in this country is really done.

Only 100 years ago, almost every river in the United States ran freely. After tens of thousands of dams were built, almost no wild rivers remain.

The Bureau of Reclamation was formed to build these dams for irrigation and flood control. What began as a benevolent effort to help people live better lives has become a wholesale destruction of our entire indigenous ecosystem and the species therein, and is bringning us closer to the verge of environmental collapse. Not to mention that these programs have amounted to welfare for rich corporate farmers in the way of water subsidies and free infrastructure, all at the expense of family farmers who can't possibly compete with the prices of the corporations.

This is an amazingly thorough and well researched book that gives you insight into the invisible corruption of our government from which you can plainly see the types of things the Bush Administration is doing now.

This book is amazing, even if it's not always a page turner and any review necessarily falls short of praising its magnitude.

The work of a lifetime, Reisner's 500 page expose on the Western Water Machine will change the way any fist-time reader views 1)water 2) the federal government, and 3) the American West.

Reisner's book is of a rare breed: meticulously researched, written with craft and humor and a human touch, and altogether damning mjust by telling the facts.

In essence, and for a longer paraphrase look below, Reisner demonstrates that Los Angeles, California farmers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of Engineers and others worked togther to bend reality in favor of growth and living space. At some level this made sense. Hoover Dam, Reisner writes, helped to win WWII through its desperately needed energy production. However, at some point what was once needed became an imperitive for its own sake. Dams for the sake of building beautiful dams. Water projects for political legacy. Expensive water projects for farmers growing surplus crops. And then America gradually became aware that this Cadillac desert - an artificial oasis where the land once was dry - has come at a staggering environmental and recreational cost.

It's a book that open the reader's eyes and understand a bit more about how U.S.A. works, especially in the arid West.

This reader highly recommends this work to show the complexity involved in answering the question, "How much does a glass of water cost in the American Southwest "? The author wrote a well-researched book in an attempt to show the factors involved in answering that question. The author portrays a complex web of jurisdictions on the state local and federal levels that are involved in various projects. Every policy has its winners and losers. The book contains a little history of the Southwest, some personal interviews, many stories of the pork barrel politics involved to make sure the rest of the country buys into these irrigation and dam projects. This book will be an eye-opener for most Easterners in this country where battling over water rights is generally not on the local political agenda. A very rewarding book.

Surely the 59 other reviews that are listed below have covered much of what there is to say about "Cadillac Desert". Resiner has an engaging writing style that veers occasionally into rage and anger. He, um, doesn't much care for the Bureau of Reclamation or the Army Corps of Engineers, although much of his fury is spend on the Bureau. Why, I wonder, did the Army Corps get off so easy?

This book actually reads like a series of shorter articles placed together. The book lacks clear sense of direction. The last couple of chapters dealing with "case studies" of specific Dam sites can only be described as "tiresome". However, his early chapters, those dealing with the beginning of irrigation in the west, are fascinating.

Personally, I am totally interested in the history of the Salton "Sea" and the mere fact that Reisner devotes several pages to the subject was enough to make reading half this book worthwhile. The other half was made worth while by the fact that I no longer have to pretend that I've read this book, now I've actually read it!

Is it me, or this one of those books you're supposed to read as an undergraduate?

One final note, this book makes for an interesting companion read with Imperial San Francisco, by Gary Brechin.

Marc Reisner wrote a classic for the Water ecology set. You will learn so much information that rarely makes it in the news, yet is far more important than the news.

Within this book, Reisner explains how water resources are misused due to poor government water policies. The Bureau of Water Reclamation sells water to Western farmers for virtually nothing. In turn, these farmers waste this precious resource by growing rice (the most water intensive crop with the lowest market value) in desertic areas. As a result, farmers use about 75% of all water consumption in the West.

This book written over 15 years ago explains the underlying trends to the current water crisis in California. But, as depicted in the book, this water crisis is entirely self induced by poor water management. We should not be growing water intensive crops (rice) in deserts with subsidized water thereby triggering a constraint on both our demographic and economic growth in the West.

With better water management, including a reduction in water subsidy, there would be plenty of water for everyone. This would include enough water to allow for demographic growth, industrial growth, and a thriving water efficient agricultural sector.

This book is as relevant today, as when it was first written.

Two books are absolutely required reading in understanding California politics and its history: one of them is 'City of Quartz' by Mike Davis and the other is Reisner's 'Cadillac Desert'. No rock is left unturned in this well written treatise. All the chicanery, dirty deals and maneuvering are exposed. It is simply a juicy read.

The late Marc Reisner's brilliant and epic history of the struggles over water in the American West is an epic tale, and it is replete with heroes, villains, and victims. Unfortunately, most of the heroes appear early in the story, with mainly villains onstage at the end. Reisner begins his book with a recounting of the exploration and study of the West by several pioneers, but especially by John Wesley Powell, who understood the essential and unavoidable problems of the West earlier and better than anyone. Powell understood that the West was arid, most of it receiving far less water than needed to support either agriculture or livestock. His visionary and yet profoundly practical suggestions were largely rejected by the United States, setting the stage for much of the overdevelopment and exploitation in the twentieth century.

From Powell, Reisner carries his narrative through such vivid personalities and events as William Mulholland, who pioneered water works to provide Los Angeles with water; Michael Strauss, the head of the Bureau of Reclamation for FDR, during which time the bureau built literally hundreds of dams; and the infamous Floyd Dominy, who manages to be both charismatic and scary at the same time, like a James Bond villain. He also takes the reader through some of the more spectacular water projects in US history, such as the building of the Hoover Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam, in addition to scores of massive water projects for various states in the US. He also devotes a great deal of space to the struggles between the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the resulting economic disaster that resulted.

Reisner shows in excruciating detail how America has stretched its use of water in the West to the breaking point. For many in the West, water has been the key to an expanding economy and population, to the point where most of the water states are completely dependent on maintaining or even expanding their current water supply. But, as Reisner shows and Powell anticipated, there are inescapable limits to how much water can be provided to the West. Moreover, much of the water use is resulting in ecological disaster. It isn't just that some of the dams are dangerous (such as the Teton Dam, which ruptured and broke some years ago, and which is not too different from other dams currently in use), or that many of the dams are destined to silt up (in fact, most dams, as Reisner points out, are built with a specific lifespan in mind, which means that thousands of American dams will at some point need replacing), or hundred of wildlife habitats have been destroyed. Most of the dams have led to irrigation farming, which has throughout history led to the destruction of soil, like in Iraq, where nearly all the arable soil has been destroyed through irrigation.

This is a sobering, frightening book, and one would hope that it would help lead to a renewed effort to bring Western water policy in line with the facts that John Wesley Powell outlined over a hundred years ago. Eventually, we will have to face these facts. Hopefully we will do so before catastrophe forces it upon us.

This book covers all of the following topics: settlement of the West, the growth of Los Angeles, Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, irrigation, salinity, groundwater overdraft, Ogallala Aquifer, desalinization, dams, dam building, hydroelectric power, interstate conflict (Arizona vs California), international conflict (Mexico vs the United States), pork barrel politics, fish, waterfowl, subsidized water for farmers, selective enforcement of the law, Colorado River, crop selection, federal water projects, state water projects, silt, water rights, displacement of local residents, evaporation, and irrigated water for corporate farms. This book was educational.

Before beginning this book, note that it is not simply a list of environmental complaints. Marc Reisner has a conservationist background, but here he is acting as a reporter and not an essayist. Hence this book if a political history of water projects in the American west, with little environmentalism to be found, except at a very high level. And what we have is the story of some truly bizarre politics. Most of the west can naturally support very few people, so the US government has forced civilization upon it through irrigation schemes that are mostly made up of more and more dams built to bigger and bigger proportions. How else would you explain the presence of major cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles in the middle of deserts, or lush green farmlands in areas that had been nothing but sand for millennia?

The Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation led the way, starting with a modest program of increasing water supplies to small farmers who were bravely pioneering the Wild West. But in an era of huge pork barrel politics and a paranoid desire to conquer nature, these plans spiraled into megalomania. The Corps and Bureau competed with each other to build the biggest projects, and schemes were designed to keep engineers working and to keep money flowing to the pockets of campaign contributors. Thus projects were built that were ridiculous wastes of money (in some cases, delivering 10 cents of benefit for every taxpayer dollar spent), increased environmental devastation with no benefits, and were not even wanted by the people they were supposed to benefit. Meanwhile the pork barrel politics led to bizarre ideologies, with conservatives demanding subsidies paid by taxpayers to cover the losses of uneconomical schemes (the worst form of Socialism), and Democrats begging for projects that benefited a few wealthy corporate farmers while destroying the livelihoods of vast numbers of regular folks. In the greatest irony of all, Westerners beg the federal government to continue propping up a civilization that has little chance to stand on its own, while continually spouting Western rhetoric about distrusting the Feds back east.

Reisner delivers a compelling political history of these potentially disastrous trends, which will result in little water conservation in the long run, and even encourage more wasteful use. The only problem is that Reisner is a rather arrogant writer, sometimes falling on the wrong side of the fine line between sarcastic-funny and sarcastic-condescending. This book also drifts into repetitive examples of bad water schemes that merely repeat the main points that were laid down long before. But despite those minor problems, this book drives home the point that pork barrel politics is making a natural deficit of water into a potential human catastrophe that is bound to happen sooner or later.

This must-read book cuts across political, social, and economic lines in showing how the American West was sold out, chopped up, and done in by men of low moral tone, absolute lack of scruple, obsessive aim, and not least, no spine at all. Harsh words, perhaps, but read on.

You will read the story of Floyd Dominy, director of the Bureau of Reclamation, who was a man of immense sexual appetites, little capacity for discipline, and an enormous ambition for power, regardless of expense to one and all, except himself. The tales of how he captivated, and literally owned certain key congressmen are enough to make one retch. Left to his own devices, Dominy would have dammed up the Grand Canyon, Dinosaur Monument, the canyons in Canyonlands and Arches National parks, and anything else where concrete could be poured and contractors kept happy. Who paid for all this TVA-West stuff? You and I are STILL paying for it, not in taxes, but in loss of scenic grandeur that was your birthright until Dominy and his crooked pals got hold of it. Probably the only good thing James Watt did was fire this malefactor of governmental power.

Read about William Mulholland and how he jammed the water plans for Los Angeles down others' throats, and how he passed buck when things failed. Again, the corruption and intrigue are unbelievable and disgusting.

Read how all these grandiose schemes will fail, and are failing. Lack of foresight, or active refusal to accept inevitable limitations, is the reason. As with all other societies based on irrigation and water hoarding, the house of cards created at the whim of private capital's shortsightedness will eventually fall.

When the next xerothermic climate period hits, as it did in 1240 A.D., and when Nebraska becomes a desert and Phoenix and Los Angeles wither, this book will serve as a reminder to both those evacuating the West, and those being forced to accept these refugees, that a sane water policy cannot be based on economic gain and venial whims of politicians and unscrupulous developers. Will anyone listen then? Stay tuned.

I am somewhat ashamed to have read this book only recently. I should have read this one years ago.

Well, better late than never, and I am pleased to report that it deserves its enduring reputation.

...But let me assume that I am writing this "review" for an audience that is neither familiar with Reisner's book nor aware of the role water development has played in every aspect of the history of the American West, particularly of California.

Briefly, the history of water development contains the whole story of the West, from start to present. Early modern irrigation worked miracles and opened to the plow land previously unavailable for agriculture -- land that now feeds the nation and much of the world. If it were not for these early, massive hydro-projects, not one of the great cities of the West would be even conceivable, millions upon millions of people would and could never have considered settling the western half of the continent. Of course, there was a massive cost accompanying all of these benefits, measurable in human as well as environmental terms, but in those days the cost-benefit analysis was easy.

Building upon early irrigation successes, two government agencies -- the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers, may they both live forever in infamy -- garnered unto themselves massive power and independence, which they used to keep on building dam after dam after dam. The problem was not so much (at the time the dams were built) that the environmental costs were higher with every dam, until there now remains no wild river beyond the hundredth meridian of any significance whatsoever, precious little habitat for migratory birds, mass extinctions, etc., etc., tragically etc.; the real problem (at the time the dams were built) was that the new dams brought no benefits whatsoever to stack up against their costs. Each new dam represented gratuitous environmental catastrophe, effected simply because water projects became the currency of pork barrel Congressional politics.

And that's not the worst of it. Except for the Egyptian (the Nile River being a very special case), every civilization founded upon irrigation has always ended -- abruptly -- almost certainly due to the sudden and permanent despoliation of irrigated agricultural soil through concentration of salts, which is the inevitable result of irrigation. No previous irrigation civilization has ever worked on such a grand scale, or with soil already so alkaline, as ours. Death by salinity is happening with alarming rapidity in the American West even now. The end of agriculture as we know it in the West is coming, and coming soon; all the experts know it; nothing is being done.

Reisner doesn't suggest much in the way of solutions. But as history -- explaining patterns of human settlement, the effects of that settlement on the region's geography, the patterns of flow and accumulation of wealth in the West, and what may be the greatest crisis our whole nation is facing and ignoring today -- Cadillac Desert can't be beat.

Mr. Reisner presents an intriguing history of water use in the Western US. It is an excellent read for an historical account, although Mr. Reisner editorializes a wee bit too much to get 5 stars out of me. Still, it is a must for anyone who wants to understand a huge component of the geopolitical background of our arid western states. If you are remotely interested in this topic, buy the book. You won't be sorry.

"Cadillac Desert" is one of those books that causes a person to seriously question "the system" (no matter your ideological affiliation). The book exposes the blantant contradictions and hypocrisy that have permeated the history of the West (which history is the history of water and it being reigned in). Take my own situation for example: Over the last couple of weeks I found myself agreeing page after page with the authors' points of view. During those same weeks when I was reading the book and agreeing with the author, I was swimming in, showering in, watering my lawn with, and drinking the very water the author condemned. As if that wasn't bad enough I reflected on my former years when I worked every summer on the family farm which was sustained by CAP and reclamation water. Ouch!!!
My reading this book can basically be translated into the author, Marc Reisner, slapping me in the face and chewing me out and me just sitting there unable to defend myself. The book sets forth examples that are virtually impossible to argue against. However, one point Mr. Reisner failed to mention is the importance agriculture plays in our national security and our ability as a nation to sustain ourselves. This point, though, hardly justifies the irrational decisions made buy both the Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers. I mention it here as a kind a weak punch from the canvas in an attempt to justify my existence after being so brutally beaten down by facts and the exposure of the blatant hypocrisy perpetuated by so-called "ideological purists" (which come from both sides of the aisle). The author said it best by stating that when it comes to water there are no Republicans and Democrats, and there are no liberals or conservatives.

This is the definitive history of water in the American West. A must read for any Californian, this tale of how America brought civilization to the desert is a fascinating look at political power, gargantuan engineering projects, and hubris. The reality is that the 9 million residents of Los Angeles County need to get water from somewhere. Cadillac Desert tells you how it gets there and what price is still being paid.