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applegnreads's review against another edition
3.0
I'm working my way through it. It is interesting. I had heard about this book in college. I have to say though, that while interesting, Reisner is an irritating author who is sometimes distracting because he uses words that are rather obscure for no apparent reason. I'm all for improving vocabulary but the effect is jarring.
Ok, I'm done which took some serious effort on my part. Great subject but the book could have used an editor or two. Maybe three. Oh well.
Ok, I'm done which took some serious effort on my part. Great subject but the book could have used an editor or two. Maybe three. Oh well.
tonyleachsf's review against another edition
5.0
This is a fantastic book that will stick with me for a while. It’s changed my outlook on government, farming, and the environment. It combines good history with a fair take on environmental impacts of the things we build.
The government does not come out well. Clear corruption, poor incentives, and bad decision making clearly lead to our water woes - and budget woes - today.
I love that this book paints a balanced picture and stays away from partisan bickering. Mostly because no one comes out well.
The government does not come out well. Clear corruption, poor incentives, and bad decision making clearly lead to our water woes - and budget woes - today.
I love that this book paints a balanced picture and stays away from partisan bickering. Mostly because no one comes out well.
tintinintibet's review against another edition
3.0
I remember being frustrated with what felt like a disorganized, non-chronological set of chapters, with some material repeated. Since it reads more like history/social science, I think it ought to be more structured than loose. This isn't Edward Abbey, though the author seems to try to be as creative with his storytelling as you might find in fiction.
abbeyhar103's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't finish. Very interesting to learn about the founding of Los Angeles as well as the creation of water, but the "characters" and dramas were so hard to keep track of - I'm going to blame that on the writing. Also he had essentially no citations which I found annoying.
kmichelle92's review against another edition
5.0
I think this book touched on something I’ve felt quite strongly in the last decade or so about “desolate” “barren” “ugly” environments. I’ve long felt an affinity for such places, and even seen beauty in them personally. An argument to build a dam in Alaska because a swamp was ugly and useless (when the dam would have held zero value and done nothing but satisfy the egos of the Bureau of Reclamation or U.S. Army’s Corps of Engineers), despite the reality that the swamp held immeasurable value for the wildlife that lived there and humans living nearby. I think being from Arizona and growing up hearing people dismiss it as awful, hot, ugly and “worthless” has bothered me more as time has gone on because environments have value whether you want to live there or not, whether you find it beautiful or not. This attitude (I believe) is also responsible for reckless development, the continual suggestion to build something like a shopping mall at/near the Grand Canyon, the development of microchip processing plants that use incredible amounts of valuable and limited water.
superzygote's review against another edition
3.0
Sweeping saga of the history of the water wars in the American southwest. Details the incredible corruption that led to the birth of Los Angeles and its surrounding counties -- a series of lush irrigated oases where Mother Nature intended to be a barren desert. He writes the book to foreshadow the end of empire, not as a warning so much as a blunt statement of fact. Along the way he catalogues all the vices and ill deeds that have been committed in our quest for water.
There is literally nothing in this history of water acquisition that is not dirty, from Los Angeles' outright theft of water from the Colorado River to the forced displacement of already displaced Native American tribes, from the construction of useless dams as state pork barrel projects to the gross irrigation subsidies for corporate farmers. It makes me deeply, deeply ashamed to be from Southern California.
There is literally nothing in this history of water acquisition that is not dirty, from Los Angeles' outright theft of water from the Colorado River to the forced displacement of already displaced Native American tribes, from the construction of useless dams as state pork barrel projects to the gross irrigation subsidies for corporate farmers. It makes me deeply, deeply ashamed to be from Southern California.
s_books's review against another edition
informative
4.5
An excellently written history of water in the American west, the only main drawback is that as a published book, it has to have an end point and years and events have since made it seem a bit dated — even the postscript to the 2017 revised edition, written by the author’s wife, talks about things such as the removal of dams on the Klamath as a possibility instead of, what they now are, a reality. And times, most likely, will still keep on a-changin’.