Battling the Inland Sea: American Political Culture, Public Policy, and the Sacramento Valley, 1850-1986 [Hardcover]

Robert Kelley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 1989

In its natural condition the Sacramento Valley flooded annually and an inland sea formed during the rainy season, draining slowly away by the summer months. The effort to control the flooding and exploit the rich valley for agriculture has resulted in an intricate, thousand-mile system of levees and drains. Robert Kelley documents and analyzes the process and the widely-diverging ideas about how best to reclaim the Valley from flood -- a process equally relevant to riverine areas across the country, many of which experienced serious flooding in 1997. A new foreword by David N. Kennedy discusses the Sacramento Valley floods of 1997.

"A valuable study, rich in scholarly detail and documentation... of America's use -- and abuse -- of natural resources in the western United States". -- Thomas Jablonsky, Southern California Quarterly

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"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)

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

• Hardcover: 395 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; First edition. edition (June 13, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520064879
• ISBN-13: 978-0520064874
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,147,865 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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