Author Description

Product Description The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West. Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of Eden-an Eden that may be only a mirage. Review Cadillac Desert describes serious, perhaps fatal threats to the miraculous desert civilization of the West...Take[s] effective aim at the vested interests that perpetuate unsound water resource development.-- "Library Journal" Cadillac Desert is timely and of national importance. Hurry up and read this book.-- "Washington Post" [This] timely and important book should be required reading for all citizens.-- "Publishers Weekly" A revealing, absorbing, often amusing and alarming report on where billions of [taxpayer's] dollars have gone-and where a lot more are going...[Reisner] has put the story together in trenchant form.-- "Gladwin Hill, New York Times Book Review" Beautifully written and meticulously researched.-- "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" Essential background reading for anyone who cares about the drought ravaging the West and the region's prospects for changing course before it is too late.-- "Daily Beast" Masterful...Among the most influential environmental books published by an American since Silent Spring.-- "San Fran