Cadillac Desert: The American West And Its Disa... -

Marc Reisner's (1986) is a seminal work of environmental history and advocacy journalism that remains more pertinent than ever. It chronicles the aggressive, often hubristic transformation of the arid American West into a "garden" through massive engineering and political maneuvering. Core Themes and Arguments

The book's central thesis is that the settlement of the West was largely a mistake, creating a "beachhead" civilization that is ecologically unsustainable. Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disa...

Reisner argues that the West's hydroclimate is inherently incapable of supporting the vast cities and industrial agriculture established there. Marc Reisner's (1986) is a seminal work of

Many projects, while costing taxpayers billions, disproportionately benefited a small number of large-scale farmers who relied on artificially cheap water. while costing taxpayers billions