Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley [Paperback]

Robert Kelley (Author), David N. Kennedy (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0520214285 | ISBN-13: 978-0520214286 | Edition: First edition thus.

In its natural condition the Sacramento Valley was a flood-ravaged region where an inland sea a hundred miles long regularly formed during the rainy season, to drain slowly away by the summer months. Today the Valley is marvelously productive, with a great capital city at its center, but only after a seventy-year struggle to devise and build an intricate thousand miles of levees and drains. Robert Kelley sets that battle within the encompassing national political culture, which produced, through the Republican and Democratic parties, widely diverging ideas about how best to reclaim the Valley from flood. He draws on approaches developed in the field of policy analysis to examine the relationship between American political culture and environmental policy-making. We find that the prolonged controversy over the Sacramento Valley illuminates American decision-making, then and now.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"Of late historians have become increasingly interested in the vast re-ordering of the environment involved in the creation of America. Nowhere was this more true than in the Sacramento Valley where re-ordering edged into folly. Battling the Inland Sea is a powerful evocation of the losses and gains involved in battling the mighty Sacramento River. But more than this, it is an exploration of the national will as it sought to rearrange nature herself with such mixed results. Here is history dealing with the most elemental forces of land, water and engineering as they are shaped by public policy. Here is the profound drama of value and symbol which occurs when Americans come into conflict with forces over which they can exercise, as Robert Kelley shows, only the most transitory and pyrrhic victories."--Kevin Starr, author of the Americans and the California Dream

"Robert Kelley's research into the origins of California's first great flood control system has already helped to inform the shaping of the state's water laws. Now he opens up the benefits of that work for the average reader in a wonderfully clear and engaging story that manages, among other things, to show that water development in the United States hasn't been just a matter of engineering but a cultural and intellectual achievement as well."--William Kahrl, author of Water and Power

"A vividly written narrative of one of the major transformations of the physical world we inhabit. Robert Kelley draws upon his rich store of learning and insight to set the struggles over the Sacramento Valley into a broad context. His book contains important lessons for those who would understand the American economy, environment, politics, or culture."--Daniel W. Howe, author of The Political Culture of the American Whigs

About the Author

Robert Kelley is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is the author of The Shaping of the American Past and several other highly esteemed books.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; First edition thus. edition (February 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520214285
• ISBN-13: 978-0520214286
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive but compelling December 13, 1999

By Chuck Smith

Format:Paperback

For a native of the flood-prone Sacramento Valley, Battling The Inland Sea is the bible. Nowhere else is the history of a fitful battle against the annual floodwaters unleashed on the Sacramento Valley by the powerful Sierra Nevada watersheds captured so comprehensively. Kelley, however, informs us in a style that is relevant and entertaining. The valley resident treasures it for its history of the Big Fight. Political scientists enjoy it for its history and the lively way Kelley uses the fight over flooding in Northern California as a study in California and national politics.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An inspired overview of the political cultural of California water politics July 22, 2007

By L. Allan James

Format:Paperback

I was deeply influenced by Kelley's early works on hydraulic mining in the 1950s (his book Gold vs. Grain and his papers such as the Forgotten Giant: ...Hydraulic Mining...). I also heard strong praise for this book from many water professionals in the Sacramento Valley. As I eagerly read this book, therefore, I expected more of the same: a study of the massive impact that hydraulic mining sedimentation had on California rivers, flooding, and politics in the late nineteenth century.
Fortunately - I was surprised to learn - Battling the Inland Sea (BIS) goes well beyond the physical and political effects of historical sedimentation in several important ways. This book is much broader in its geographic extent and substantive scope than Kelley's earlier works. Geographically, mining sediment primarily impacted the lowermost Sacramento River (below Fremont Weir) and its Sierra Nevada tributaries (especially the Feather, Yuba, Bear, and American Rivers). BIS is more broadly concerned with flood control in the Sacramento Valley up into and beyond the extensive Colusa and Butte Basins which had relatively little impact from mining sediment. Moreover, the emphasis of the discussion in BIS is on the history of flood control efforts in the Valley and the surrounding political culture of flood control. Although these topics are inseparable from the mining sediment issue in some areas, it is a much broader topic involving a set of deeper issues. In fact, Kelley makes it clear from the outset that the Sacramento Valley was prone to extensive flooding and that the natural river channel was incapable of conveying but a small fraction of the flow during large floods; long before mining sediment arrived. This emphasis is key to understanding the importance of BIS to educating both professional river managers and the lay public to the actual flood risks in the Valley. The long history of flood control in the Sacramento Valley represents a fight against nature. Mining sedimentation is a complication that exacerbates an already intractable flood-prone situation, but it is not the primary cause of flood risk. Extensive low-lying basins are the inherent cause for concern.
The common ground between BIS and Kelley's earlier work is that he, again, presents an inspired historical overview of the political culture underlying California water politics. The complex developments of the period are put into a context of shifting ideologies of resource management, perception of nature, and the vagaries of politics and economics.
I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in these broader topics. It is, of course, a must-read for students of California flood-management history.
Allan James
Geography Department
University South Carolina

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Essentially the same book as "Gold v. Grain" October 23, 2000

By j.e.c.

Format:Paperback

I am a big California rivers environmental history buff, and I found this book to be too similar to his publication "Gold v. Grain" which debuted over 40 years ago. This book is essentially an extension of "Gold v. Grain" that covers the 1960s-1980s. Much of the earlier chapters are virtually cut and pasted verbatim from his previous book. Despite these criticisms, it remains (to my knowledge) the most comprehensive book written about the Sacramento River to date. Until a better book on the Sac comes along, this is probably the one to read for factual information, and for more conceptual/abstract stimulation, I recommend "Organic Machine" by Richard White.