"I've been thinking a lot about Cadillac Desert in the past few
weeks, as the rain fell and fell and kept falling over California, much
of which, despite the pouring heavens, seems likely to remain in the
grip of a severe drought. Reisner anticipated this moment. He worried
that the West's success with irrigation could be a mirage -- that it
took water for granted and didn't appreciate the precariousness of our
capacity to control it." - Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times, January
20,2023
"The definitive work on the West's water crisis." --Newsweek
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 corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water
rights, of ecological and economic disaster. In his landmark book,
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 U.S. 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 an Eden--an Eden that may only be
a mirage.
This edition includes a new postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff
scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, that updates Western
water issues over the last two decades, including the long-term impact
of climate change and how the region can prepare for the future.
