Buy new:
$17.99$17.99
Arrives:
Monday, June 26
Ships from: Amazon.com Sold by: Amazon.com
Buy used: $9.64
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required. Learn more
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition Paperback – January 1, 1993
| Price | New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry" |
$0.00
| Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry" | $29.21 | — |
Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.
View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.
Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.
Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
-
90 days FREE Amazon Music. Terms apply.
90 days FREE of Amazon Music Unlimited. Offer included with purchase. Only for new subscribers who have not received offer in last 90 days. Renews automatically. You will receive an email to redeem. Terms apply. Offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)
"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.
- Print length582 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1993
- Grade level12 and up
- Reading age18 years and up
- Dimensions8.36 x 5.52 x 1.09 inches
- ISBN-100140178244
- ISBN-13978-0140178241
Frequently bought together

What do customers buy after viewing this item?
- Most purchased | Highest ratedin this set of products
The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand CanyonKevin FedarkoPaperback$10.37 shipping - This item:
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised EditionPaperback$10.78 shipping
Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover DamMichael HiltzikPaperback$10.68 shipping
Special offers and product promotions
- 90 days FREE of Amazon Music Unlimited. Offer included with purchase. Only for new subscribers who have not received offer in last 90 days. Renews automatically. You will receive an email to redeem. Terms apply. Offered by Amazon.com. Here's how (restrictions apply)
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
--San Francisco Examiner
"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."
--Mark Hertsgaard, The Daily Beast
"Timely and of national interest. . . . Resiner captures Western water history in Cinemascope and Technicolor. . . . lawmakers, taxpayers, hurry up and read this book."
--The Washington Post
"The scale of this book is as staggering as that of Hoover Dam. Beautifully written and meticulously researched, it spans our century-long effort to moisten the arid West. . . . Anyone thinking of moving west of the hundredth meridian should read this book before they call their real estate agent."
--St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"A revealing, absorbing, often amusing and alarming report on where billions of [taxpayers'] dollars have gone-- and where a lot more are going . . . [Reisner] has put the story together in trenchant form."
--The New York Times Book Review
About the Author
Lawrie Mott, formerly an environmental heath scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, lives in a Bay Area county that receives all its water from local supplies. From Marc Reisner, her late husband, she learned about water in the West at their dinner table and during long drives through western states. Mott received her B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and her M.S. from Yale.
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Books; 2nd edition (January 1, 1993)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 582 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0140178244
- ISBN-13 : 978-0140178241
- Reading age : 18 years and up
- Grade level : 12 and up
- Item Weight : 1.05 pounds
- Dimensions : 8.36 x 5.52 x 1.09 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #16,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Water Supply & Land Use (Books)
- #21 in Environmental Science (Books)
- #123 in U.S. State & Local History
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
In fact, when you read this book, you realize that the government was actually short-sighted when it changed the face of the western states by approving literally hundreds of water projects. Some were absolutely necessary of course, to get certain wild rivers under control. But water rights were sold or given to a limited few, who of course made money off of it, and did not prepare for long-term viability.
The western states cannot sustain their population growth indefinitely. Our existing climate, and climate change, will continue to produce water shortages in the West. Coupled with the lack of natural water resources and it is only a matter of time before population growth in these areas must be constrained, and/or people will need to begin moving away from these states.
This book is an in-depth discussion of the many issues that compile water rates in the West, ranging from who gets to use the water, how it is used, and how it gets abused. It should be mandatory reading for any politicians, especially at the federal level, to understand what climate problems and challenges our country faces, not just in the short-term but long-term as well - and how the government's previous actions led to this point.
If you are the least bit interested in climate change or living in the West, you should consider this mandatory reading as well.
From Powell, Reisner carries his narrative through such vivid personalities and events as William Mulholland, who pioneered water works to provide Los Angeles with water; Michael Strauss, the head of the Bureau of Reclamation for FDR, during which time the bureau built literally hundreds of dams; and the infamous Floyd Dominy, who manages to be both charismatic and scary at the same time, like a James Bond villain. He also takes the reader through some of the more spectacular water projects in US history, such as the building of the Hoover Dam and the Grand Coulee Dam, in addition to scores of massive water projects for various states in the US. He also devotes a great deal of space to the struggles between the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the resulting economic disaster that resulted.
Reisner shows in excruciating detail how America has stretched its use of water in the West to the breaking point. For many in the West, water has been the key to an expanding economy and population, to the point where most of the water states are completely dependent on maintaining or even expanding their current water supply. But, as Reisner shows and Powell anticipated, there are inescapable limits to how much water can be provided to the West. Moreover, much of the water use is resulting in ecological disaster. It isn't just that some of the dams are dangerous (such as the Teton Dam, which ruptured and broke some years ago, and which is not too different from other dams currently in use), or that many of the dams are destined to silt up (in fact, most dams, as Reisner points out, are built with a specific lifespan in mind, which means that thousands of American dams will at some point need replacing), or hundred of wildlife habitats have been destroyed. Most of the dams have led to irrigation farming, which has throughout history led to the destruction of soil, like in Iraq, where nearly all the arable soil has been destroyed through irrigation.
This is a sobering, frightening book, and one would hope that it would help lead to a renewed effort to bring Western water policy in line with the facts that John Wesley Powell outlined over a hundred years ago. Eventually, we will have to face these facts. Hopefully we will do so before catastrophe forces it upon us.















