Cadillac Desert

Description

Marc Reisner examines how politicians, engineers, and federal agencies attempted to overcome the aridity of the American West. Across more than a century of dams, aqueducts, and river diversions, he argues that the region’s growth rested less on natural abundance than on public spending, political bargaining, and the redistribution of scarce water. Rival agencies compete for authority and money while cities and farms pursue projects of escalating size and complexity. Reisner also explains the legal doctrine that rewards earlier beneficial use with senior rights, even during drought, and uses undertakings such as the Central Utah Project to expose the costs of moving water across vast distances. The book presents western development as both an engineering achievement and a dangerous refusal to accept the desert’s environmental limits.

Themes