Amazon.com
The definitive history of water resources in the American West, and a very illuminating lesson in the political economy of limited resources anywhere. Highly recommended!
Book Description
Part One Of Two Parts
The story of the American West is the story of the relentless quest to control and allocate nature's most common, and the West's most precious, resource: water. CADILLAC DESERT recounts this dramatic saga.
The early settlers were lured by free land. But there was not enough water to sustain them, and they drifted on. Only the Mormons stayed, carefully tending a system of irrigation canals that tempered perpetual drought. Their success gave birth to federal aid programs, principally the Bureau of Reclamation. Without the bureau, without Hoover, Shasta and Grand Coulee, the West as we know it would not exist.
Customer Reviews:
Every American needs to read this book........2007-09-07
Or anyone thinking about moving/living west of the 100th meridian.
One of the best modern non-fiction books ever written, period.
Essential reading for our time.......2007-08-23
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.
never dry!.......2007-08-20
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.
History as entertainment.......2007-07-21
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.
An essential, action-packed story of water policy (yes, you read that right).......2006-11-27
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.
Amazon.com
The "essence of the American desert," as the subtitle of Craig Childs's book has it, is water. A desert, by definition, lacks it, but when water does come, it comes in torrential, sometimes devastating abundance. Childs, a thirtysomething desert rat with a vast knowledge of the Southwest's remote corners, knows this fact well. "Most rain falling anywhere but the desert comes slow enough that it is swallowed by the soil without comment," he observes. "Desert rains, powerful and sporadic, tend to hit the ground, gather into floods, and are gone before the water can sink five inches into the ground."
The travels that Childs recounts in this vivid narrative take him from places sometimes parched, sometimes swimming, from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the dry limestone tanks of the lava-strewn Sonoran Desert. As he travels, Childs gives a close reading of the desert landscape ("the moral," he writes at one point, "is that if you know the land and its maps, you might live"), observing the rocks, plants, animals, and people that call it home. Some of his adventures will remind readers of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire--save that Childs writes without Abbey's bluster, and with a measured lyricism that well suits the achingly lovely back canyons and cactus forests of the Southwest. By turns travelogue, ecological treatise, and meditative essay, Childs's book will speak to anyone who has spent time under desert skies, wondering when the next drop of rain might fall. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The "essence of the American desert," as the subtitle of Craig Childs's book has it, is water. A desert, by definition, lacks it, but when water does come, it comes in torrential, sometimes devastating abundance. Childs, a thirtysomething desert rat with a vast knowledge of the Southwest's remote corners, knows this fact well. "Most rain falling anywhere but the desert comes slow enough that it is swallowed by the soil without comment," he observes. "Desert rains, powerful and sporadic, tend to hit the ground, gather into floods, and are gone before the water can sink five inches into the ground." The travels that Childs recounts in this vivid narrative take him from places sometimes parched, sometimes swimming, from the depths of the Grand Canyon to the dry limestone tanks of the lava-strewn Sonoran Desert. As he travels, Childs gives a close reading of the desert landscape ("the moral," he writes at one point, "is that if you know the land and its maps, you might live"), observing the rocks, plants, animals, and people that call it home. Some of his adventures will remind readers of Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire--save that Childs writes without Abbey's bluster, and with a measured lyricism that well suits the achingly lovely back canyons and cactus forests of the Southwest. By turns travelogue, ecological treatise, and meditative essay, Childs's book will speak to anyone who has spent time under desert skies, wondering when the next drop of rain might fall. --Gregory McNamee
Customer Reviews:
A touch of Abbey.......2007-08-27
I would agree this has a touch of Ed Abbey in it. It is educational and hisorical intertwined with interesting stories and a touch of suspense. If you love and cherish the beauty and harshness of the desert, you will appreciate this book.
Desert solitaire . . ........2006-12-26
This book by naturalist Craig Childs belongs on any Edward Abbey bookshelf, where writers have fallen in love with the desert Southwest and portray it eloquently on the printed page. Childs is more scientist than environmentalist, but he has Abbey's fascination with wilderness adventure, which takes him in search of what he regards as the most elemental aspect of the desert - the water to be found there. These searches take him far into remote areas of the vast Colorado River watershed, mostly in Arizona, including the canyons that feed into the Grand Canyon.
The book is divided into three sections: still water, streams, and flood. We discover that if one knows how to search for it - and the first inhabitants of these areas did know - there is water to be found in plentiful supply. Likewise, there are spring-fed streams that flow during certain seasons, and in and along both kinds of water there is a host of different life forms, plants and animals, each place representing a specific and evolving ecosystem. Childs' eye and ear for detail and his scientific knowledge join to create vivid accounts of the discoveries he makes as he explores. We learn, for instance, how pools of rainwater in the desert wastes become populated with forms of aquatic life and how these survive, even through long periods of extreme drought.
For me, a particularly harrowing adventure was his exploration of a system of caves from which a stream of ice-cold water emerges high on a canyon wall near the Grand Canyon. Others include his pursuit of floods in the making in this same system of canyons following summer cloudbursts, and he underscores the perilousness of his curiosity by describing the deaths of other hikers and campers taken by surprise by flash floods. Often he travels alone for days and weeks at a time; sometimes he takes along a companion. What he writes of his experiences is consistently full of wonder, as well as a realization that human interference with the natural order (pumping from aquifers, as just one example) is rapidly and permanently altering ecosystems that have adapted to the desert environment over millennia.
One of the best books i've read, period........2006-08-02
gorgeous language and imagery. an amazing adventurer (but the adventures aren't really the point) and incredibly in tune with his foibles, strengths and desires. if i could follow in even 1/100th of his footsteps (literally and metaphorically)...
The Fundamental Life Source of the "Wasteland.".......2006-03-04
Although I had planned to do so, I had not gotten around to reading this wonderful book until I had some time while I was waiting in an airport recently. I immediately understood the author's reverence for the waters of the desert because I grew up in southwestern Arizona and intimately know some of the places he mentions, as well as others that he does not. The water tanks of the area near and on the Camino del Diablo and the life-giving stream called Sycamore Canyon are well known to me and I am very familiar with tadpole shrimp and some of the other smaller organisms of the tinajas, playa lakes and puddles. Indeed, Craig Childs has caught the not so easy to define wonder that one feels when seeing water in the desert. "The Secret Knowledge of Water: Discovering the Essence of the American Desert" voices what many desert rats (as I was when I was younger) would have difficulty saying- that water in the desert is almost a holy entity, a substance that defies definition (despite our knowledge of the chemical structure) because it is manifestly the material of life.
As a scientist I can find fascination with the multitude of creatures that live in the springs, creeks, rivers and tinajas, but the awe goes much deeper than just collecting facts, necessary and interesting as they are. It is, as Childs has so eloquently described, a visceral feeling that one gets- a deep satisfaction - when one sees the surface of deep and cool pools of water in hidden rocky tanks (such as Tinajas Altas, which I have not seen, but have been close to, or another group he does not mention, Cinco Tinajas in Big Bend Ranch State Park, Texas, which I have seen), or of a stream flowing in a thin sheet over the bedrock of a desert canyon, as in Sycamore Canyon.
I have only one very minor bone to pick. He says his mother was born in the Sonoran Desert, but no part of that desert reaches the Texas-Mexico border. I think he means Sonoran Life Zone. But this is a minor quibble in a book that is a gem of writing about the natural world of the North American deserts.
Read this book if you would understand the reverence for water that is engendered by a life in the desert.
very good.......2004-12-03
I was surprised that I liked this book as it started out so slow. But stick with it. It's fascinating.
Customer Reviews:
Beautiful, oh, and useful too.......2005-01-16
This is one of my favorite resources for adding plants to my garden in Albuquerque. While I have other plant guides that are better simply because they are more specific to my region, none match this one for beauty. This book is clearly a labor of love from a group of people who are hoping to advance xeric gardening in the Denver area. The information extends pretty well to planting zones 4-7, especially for dry, high altitude climates.
The number of plants listed is a little low compared to other guides that I use, but the coverage of each plant is excellent - one or two full pages of text and pictures. The two-page entries generally include several pictures, including pictures from different seasons. There is also a color drawing of each plant, which makes it easier to see significant details and is helpful with identification. The text is also useful and well organized, but it is the pictures that I spend the most time browsing through.
Excellent guide for all rocky mountain region .......2004-10-24
I live in Colorado, 11 miles north of New Mexico. This book has been a wonderful resource for my xeric gardening. Each plant/tree/vine is decribed by: landscape use, form, native range, characteristics, culture (soil type, etc.), best features, companion plants, disadvantages, and related species. There are pictures of each plant in all 4 seasons.
I take this book with me to plant nurseries and find that people are coming over to look at it and read about their possible purchases.
I agree this is not a resource for the desert southwest but it is excellent for those living in the area from Denver to the middle of New Mexico who wish to learn about water-wise planting.
Xeriscape is not Zeroscape!.......2000-12-22
One myth about xeric design is that it requires the use of only cactus and rock. Not true! In fact, there are seven xeric concepts and these concepts can be applied in any landscape. They are;
1. Pland and design for water conservation from the start. 2. Create practical turf areas. 3. Use plants that are appropriate for your area. 4. Consider adding soil improvements such as compost, manure, etc. 5. Use mulches where possible, such as wood chips, rock, etc. 6. Irrigate efficiently. 7. Plan for an appropriate maintenance system for your landscape.
The Xeriscape Plant guide provides a lot of good information on low-water use plants for dry areas, which are not only found in the Sonoran Desert but in many other places in the west as well. The book provide details on companion plants, advantages and disadvantages of specific plants and even offers photos of specific plants in different seasons. It is part of a 3-book series,and all three are worth having if you are interested in specific information on low water plants, designing a xeric garden and providing the right kind of care.
Desert Dweller comments.........2000-09-26
This book rates a 5 star rating in regions other than the Desert. Xeriscape normally would indicate Desert plantings, however, this book is for the Denver, Rocky mtn. area. It is of little assistance to Desert Dwellers desire to landscape, however, it will be a nice addition to my plant library. As a Desert Dweller I give it a 1 star rating.
Altitude information!.......2000-07-15
Beautiful illustrations of all the seasons and altitude information made this book very useful to me. I could choose those few plants that I can find to grow at my altitude and know how they would look in conjunction with the already established plants in all the seasons. Need a fall color there? You can find it! All in all very helpful.
Customer Reviews:
A good book if you love Baja.......1999-03-16
This book was quite enjoyable for anyone who has ever (or thought about it) kayaked in Baja. The book has a nice selection of photos and maps of the Baja region and should certainly be included in your "Baja library."
The same topic was covered previously in Jonathan Waterman's "Kayaking the Vermillion Sea." The difference between the two is the obvious (solo vs having a partner), but also extends beyond that--Waterman provided a closer introspective view of his experience, while Darack is more matter-of-fact about his experiences. In a way, Darack underemphasizes the dangerousness of the Sea of Cortez.
I certainly recommend reading this book.
Average customer rating:
- A Tale of a Magnificent Disaster
- What Every Member of Congress Should Know...
- Reclamation/Folly in the Desert
- Yet another award for SALT DREAMS
- SALT DREAMS wins major awards
|
Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California
William deBuys
Manufacturer: University of New Mexico Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Nature & Wildlife
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Photo Essays
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Central America
| Travel
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Travel
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
West
| United States
| Travel
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Real Estate
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Mexico
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
California
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Colorado
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Environmental Science
| Earth Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Water Supply & Land Use
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Agricultural Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
| Agronomy
| Animal Husbandry
| Aquaculture
| Bacteriology
| Biochemistry
| Biotechnology
| Chemistry
| Crop Science
| Economics
| Education
| Entomology
| Food Science
| Forestry
| General
| History
| Horticulture
| Insecticides & Pesticides
| Irrigation
| Marketing
| Soil Science
| Sustainable Agriculture
| Tropical Agriculture
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Ecology
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Deserts
| Ecosystems
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Ecotourism
| Specialty Travel
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| California
| States
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Colorado
| States
| United States
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Greetings from the Salton Sea: Folly and Intervention in the Southern California Landscape, 1905-2005 (Center for American Places-Center Books on American Places)
-
Salton Sea Atlas
-
Seeing Things Whole: The Essential John Wesley Powell (Pioneers of Conservation)
-
A River No More: The Colorado River and the West, Expanded and Updated edition
-
Wondrous Cold: An Antarctic Journey
ASIN: 0826321267 |
Amazon.com
William Smythe, a Southern California booster, was not alone when in 1900 he expressed his hope that "the great brown waste which lies on the borders of two republics... will some time be as densely populated as the lands of the Nile, as rich in industry as the Kingdom of Holland."
A century later, the coastal desert of Southern California has indeed become a rich and populous place. The interior desert, however, along the U.S.-Mexico border, is as empty and poor as ever. Historian William deBuys and photographer Joan Myers explore that country, its virtual capital the salt-choked Salton Sea, in the pages of this fine book, which offers a deeply learned but readable study of the politics of water and land use in the arid Southwest. DeBuys remarks that for Europeans and Americans the land has always seemed a geographic tabula rasa, subject to making and remaking, a landscape in which dreams can come true--one of them being to remake an unforgiving desert into an agricultural treasure house. Those dreams, however, can turn into nightmares, as speculations fail and dunes reclaim what is rightfully theirs--for, as deBuys notes, "in low places consequences collect." Desert rats and students of California history will find many rewards in these pages. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In low places consequences collect, and in all North America you cannot get much lower than the Imperial Valley of southern California, where one town, 186 feet below sea level, calls itself the Lowest Down City in the Western Hemisphere, and where the waters of the Colorado River sustain a billion-dollar agricultural industry. The consequences of that industry drain from the valley into the accidentally man-made Salton Sea, CaliforniaÂ's largest lake and a vital stopping place for migratory waterfowl. Today the Salton Sea is in desperate environmental trouble.
A second river also ends in the Salton Sea. It is a river of dreams, the remains of which may be seen in the failed real estate developments that sprawl beside the sea. As the ending point of both the real Colorado and this river of dreams, the Salton Sea has become emblematic of much of the history of the American West. Its troubling story is masterfully told here in William deBuysÂ's narrative and Joan MyersÂ's austerely beautiful photographs.
The story of Southern California is fundamentally a story about the control of nature. Beginning with the Yuman-speaking tribes encountered by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, deBuys traces the subsequent exploration and development of the region through the Gold Rush of 1849, the government-sponsored surveys that followed, and the inept tinkering with the river by an assortment of irrigation and development interests that resulted in the floods that formed the Salton Sea nearly a century ago. He introduces us to a gallery of rogues and dreamers who saw a great future for this arid wilderness but could never refrain from interference with the forces of nature.
The floods that produced the Salton Sea created a vast desert oasis, but the agricultural exploitation of the region, combined with evaporation, poisoned that paradise. The stark beauty of the desert, the engineering feats that have transformed the landscape, and the eerie spectacle of Salton City and its ruined beaches and abandoned yacht club are the subject of MyersÂ's photographs, made over a period of more than ten years. In the last section of Salt Dreams, deBuys acquaints us with the human and avian denizens of the region, all struggling for survival as the twentieth century draws to a close. The history of chicanery and greed recounted in deBuysÂ's narrative and his empathy with the desert dwellers he and Myers have come to know—hardworking laborers and entrepreneurs who live on both sides of the Mexicali border, eccentrics hiding out in the Salton Desert, pelicans dying of avian botulism—are crucial to an understanding of the border issues of today and the impassioned environmental debate on whether—and how—to save the Salton Sea.
http://www.joanmyers.com/Saltbk.htm
A history of the Salton Sea, which has become a prophetic story of mounting environmental crises that impinge on the water supply of southern CaliforniaÂ's sixteen million people.
Customer Reviews:
A Tale of a Magnificent Disaster.......2003-03-11
I visited the Salton Sea to photograph birds and found it impossible to describe, telling friends they had to go there themselves to experience the place and the people. Now I tell them to read this book. From the creation of the Sea to the creation of Salvation Mountain, deBuys tells it's colorful history in a prose that fills you with the sounds and smells and people of the Sea and Imperial Valley. Anyone with an interest in man's unlimited folly, vision, corruption, and the coming environmental train-wreck in southern California needs to read this book.
What Every Member of Congress Should Know..........2002-01-28
Bravo! Salt Dreams is the first of its kind to wrap up all of the issues surrounding the Salton Sea and Colorado River delta in one volume. The best since Cadillac Desert in its cinematic portrayal of a complicated host of issues. Awesome writing on the heroism of US Fish and Wildlife staff. My only criticism is that Congressman George Brown is slighted; Sonny Bono often called him "Mr. Salton Sea". Certainly, a book Mr. Brown would have loved.
Reclamation/Folly in the Desert.......2001-07-10
Superlative read revealing the vast natural beauty of the desert and its inhabitants and man's irreversable errors in judging it as a fallen Eden. Together with Cadillac Desert it ranks as a southwest water classic. Beautiful writing and stunning photographs.
Yet another award for SALT DREAMS.......2001-01-18
*Winner of the 2000 Norris and Carol Hundley Award from The Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.
SALT DREAMS wins major awards.......2001-01-17
*Winner of the 1999 Western States Book Award for Creative Non-Fiction. *Winner of the 1999 Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America.
Book Description
Rivers in the Desert is the quintessential American story. It follows the remarkable career of William Mulholland, the visionary who engineered the rise of Los Angeles as the greatest American city west of the Mississippi. He sought to transform the sparse and barren desert into an inhabitable environment by designing the longest aqueduct in the Western Hemisphere, bringing water from the mountains to support a large city. Davis chronicles Mulholland's dramatic ascension to wealth and fame, followed by his tragic downfall after the sudden collapse of the dam he had constructed to safeguard the water supply. The disaster, which killed at least five hundred people, caused his repudiation by allies, friends, and a previously adoring community. Epic in scope, Rivers in the Desert chronicles the history of Los Angeles and examines the tragic fate of the man who rescued it.
Customer Reviews:
One of the Great Books on Los Angeles.......2007-08-13
Every new Los Angeles resident quickly learns the name "Mulholland" because it appears on so many street signs and monuments, but for years people knew little about the man William Mulholland. Margaret Leslie Davis stepped into the breach with what is now the definitive biography of a formidable man. Without Mulholland, Los Angeles as we know it would not exist. The city had already outgrown its water supply in the early 20th century when it was a mere fraction of its current size. Unhindered by environmental impact reports, regional politics and the common decency expected towards one's neighbors today, Mulholland restructured the balance of power in California. He made possible the economic megalopolis of Los Angeles that would overtake San Francisco as a trade and population hub. The days when a single American such as Robert Moses in New York or William Mulholland could transform a region's identity are probably gone. With Rivers in the Desert, though, Davis gives us a window into the past when one charismatic character could get people to literally move mountains. In her words, Mulholland's story moves briskly and in rich detail. I know the author well but I had to share my enthusiasm for her great contribution to Los Angeles history.
Definitive SoCal History.......2004-06-17
Fans of the movie "Chinatown," Roman Polanski's classic detective melodrama, will love this true account of how desperately needed water was brought hundred of miles to Los Angeles, where growth in the early 20th century was rapidly outracing the city's meager water supply. Like the 1974 movie with John Huston and Jack Nicholson, the real story has villains and heroes worthy of the big screen. Fortunately, according to Hollywood Reporter, the book has been optioned by film writer/director Frank Darabont, who directed "Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile." With any luck it will come to your theater one of these days. Liam Neeson would be perfect as William Mhulholland, the steely self-taught Irish immigrant who concocted a plan to-let's face it-steal an ocean of fresh water from unsuspecting farmers and ranchers in a pastoral valley far north of the thirsty city. "Rivers in the Desert" author Margaret Leslie Davis brings the struggle to build the giant aqueduct back to life with vivid word pictures and smart details . Scheming politicians, manipulative newspaper editors and the hard-drinking roustabouts who made them rich by digging deep channels and laying gigantic pipes under impossible conditions are all part of the story. Davis's crisp writing style carries the reader effortlessly through this saga of betrayal, triumph and finally disaster. This is a masterful description of one of history's greatest engineering feats and the real people who pulled it off. Though Muhlholland's reputation was unjustifiably sullied by the tragic collapse of one of his many dams, his incredible aqueduct is still a critical source of water for Los Angeles. This is one of only a handful of books that should be considered essential to anyone who wants to understand the creation of Southern California and all its attending myths.
Accuracy is Lacking.......2004-01-21
Readers of this book should be aware that Davis' scholarship is seriously lacking. In particular, her account of the testimony of William Mulholland in the Los Angeles County Coroner's investigation of April, 1928 in connection with the St. Francis Dam disaster, is essentially a fabrication. Even a casual reader would have to be suspicious of the type of detail Davis includes that is unavailable in a court transcript, and cannot be fully trusted in newspaper accounts. More troubling is her penchant for taking the few accurate quotes she offers entirely out of their original context.
I have compared Davis' dramatic account of this event with the actual court reporter's transcript and found numerous egregious misquotes, quotes taken out of order and context, and entire passages that appear to have been woven out of whole cloth. Davis has Mulholland providing verbatim answers to questions he was not asked. The purpose appears to be to cause Mulholland to appear shiftless, defensive, self-pitying, and possibly incompetent.
It is difficult to turn a page in this book without finding similar errors of fact. On page 148, for instance, Davis suggests that Mulholland selected San Francisquito Canyon as the site of the main Los Angeles storage reservoir because it was "located next to Powerhouse Number One... making it cheaper for the reservoir to generate hydroelectric power." In fact, the St. Francis Reservoir never generated any hydroelectric power whatsoever, and it was never designed with this purpose in mind. The powerhouses (in fact there were two) were entirely separate facilities and functionally unrelated to the dam and reservoir. They were co-located only due to their proximity to the Owens Valley Aqueduct. All of the primary and secondary literature makes this fact perfectly clear.
This book is not so much a work of historiography as it is a popular tract designed to exploit and perpetuate a mythology, and in particular the "Chinatown" tale of greedy Los Angeles robber-barons manipulating a system for their own gain. The truth is of course far more complex. Many other books do far better service to the important story of William Mulholland and water development in Los Angeles. (Catherine Mulholland's biography of her grandfather, "William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles" is a much more serious effort.) Look up one of those, and skip this one.
Great Historical Review of Los Angeles.......2003-06-01
If you ever wondered how L.A. blossomed into the mega metropolis that it is today, "Rivers In The Desert" is a fantastic documentary of William Mullholland triumph to bring water to the L.A. basin. Had it not been for the for the talents of Mullholland who was sent on a expedition much to the likes of Lewis and Clark, L.A. might have never been able to tap the Owens Valley. This book is an intriguing look into politics, power and greed. This book also includes many interesting photos provided by the Department of Water and Power.
Average customer rating:
|
Desert Water
Mark Lisk
Manufacturer: Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Nature & Wildlife
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| How-to
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Secret Knowledge of Water : Discovering the Essence of the American Desert
ASIN: 1558688587 |
Book Description
When we think of the desert, we almost never associate it with water. Rather we define it by the very absence of water. Yet the desert was carved by water-canyons, arroyos, ravines, chasms, washes-and water, in any amount, is the desert's most precious and mysterious commodity. Small creeks flow at night, but dry up and disappear during daylight hours, only to return when the sun goes down. And after torrential rains, entire rivers can form with small fish appearing out of what had been only a dusty streambed. Small springs can support a variety of wildlife as well as pinyon, juniper trees, and yuccas. These hydro-miracles are chronicled in this new full-color book by landscape photographer MARK LISK and author WILLIAM FOX. In his fascinating essay, Fox examines water and its role in the North American desert, covering rivers, trapped water pockets, oases, freshwater lakes, salt and alkali lakes, and lake beds left by ancient floods in the five major desert regions in North America.
Average customer rating:
|
Drought-Tolerant Plants: Waterwise Gardening for Every Climate
Jane Taylor
Manufacturer: Macmillan General Reference
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
Landscape
| Architecture
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Flowers
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
Water
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0671865005 |
Average customer rating:
|
Survive on a Desert Island (Survival Challenge)
Claire Llewellyn
Manufacturer: Silver Dolphin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound
General
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Water
| Nature
| Science, Nature & How It Works
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Activity Books
| Sports & Activities
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ages 9-12
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Action & Adventure
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1592234267 |
Product Description
This book explores all aspects of enduring life on an uninhabited island. Read through all 12 exciting challenges and learn how to endure extreme conditions. Put your knowledge to the test by taking a quiz to see if you are a true survivor! 32 page book. 6 1/2 inches x 8 3/4 inches. Ages 8 to 12.
Books:
- A Field Guide to North Atlantic Wildlife: Marine Mammals, Seabirds, Fish, and Other Sea Life
- A Zoo in My Luggage
- AKU-AKU: The Secret of Easter Island
- An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It
- Apocalypse Not: Science, Economics, and Environmentalism
- Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape
- As Far As the Eye Can See: Reflections of an Appalachian Trail Hiker
- Backpack Gourmet: Good Hot Grub You Can Make at Home, Dehydrate, and Pack for Quick, Easy, and Healthy Eating on the Trail
- Best Hikes With Dogs: New York City & Beyond
- Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (Betsy-Tacy)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- CMMI
- Whole Health for Happy Cats: A Guide to Keeping Your Cat Naturally Healthy, Happy, and Well-Fed
- The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1930
- The Ultimate Time Machine: A Remote Viewer's Perception of Time, and Predictions for the New Millenn
- The Writer's Journey, Second Edition: Mythic Structure for Writers
- We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction
- Waiting for Wings
- Is Your ``Net'' Working
- The Hard Road to the Softer Side: Lessons from the Transformation of SEARS
- Germany Business & Investment Opportunities Yearbook
Xeriscape Handbook: A How-To Guide to Natural, Resource-Wise Gardening
Best Plants for New Mexico Gardens and Landscapes: Keyed to Cities and Regions in New Mexico and Adjacent Areas
Xeriscape Plant Guide: 100 Water-Wise Plants for Gardens and Landscapes
