Description
Book SynopsisThis treatise argues that the American West serves as a testament to a dependence upon water as the shaping force of a region's history and development. It defines the West as a modern hydraulic society dependent on man-made systems of irrigation such as dams, irrigation ditches and canals.
Trade Review'It is of enormous help to those who campaign against giantism in water resource schemes in the developing world ... Worster writes vividly ... much of his material is carefully deconstructed documentation and if the quotations read as larger than life, so were the key actors ... it is for the reviewer (a scientist) to muse, after completing this magnificent and significant text, that the true value of Worster's critique is for all our futures, under scenarios of climate change and population growth.' Malcolm Newson, Ecumene 1994
...classic... * New Internationalist *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements I. Introduction: Reflections in a Ditch II. Taxonomy: The Flow of Power in History III. Incipience: A Poor Man's Paradise IV. Florescence: The State and the Desert V. Florescence: The Grapes of Wealth VI. Empire: Water and the Modern West VII. Conclusion: Nature, Freedom, and the West Notes Index
