"Beautifully written and meticulously researched."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This updated study of the economics, politics, and ecology of water covers more than a century of public and private desert reclamation in the American West. At its core, this book is a history of the massive engineering projects—dams, aqueducts, and diversions—that allowed the arid American West to bloom into a collection of major cities and agricultural hubs. It frames the development of the West not as a triumph of nature, but as a triumph of political maneuvering and federal spending. Why It Stands Out The "Money Flows Uphill" Thesis: Reisner famously argues that in the West, water doesn't follow the laws of physics; it follows the laws of money and power.
Adaptations (1)
Cadillac Desert was adapted into a 1997 film.
Cadillac Desert1997 · film · IMDb ↗IMDb8.7Documentary on water usage, money, politics, the transformation of nature, and the growth of the American west, shown on PBS as a four-part miniseries.
