Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water

"Beautifully written and meticulously researched."—St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This updated study of the economics, politics, and ecology of water covers more than a century of public and private desert reclamation in the American West. At its core, this book is a history of the massive engineering projects—dams, aqueducts, and diversions—that allowed the arid American West to bloom into a collection of major cities and agricultural hubs. It frames the development of the West not as a triumph of nature, but as a triumph of political maneuvering and federal spending. Why It Stands Out The "Money Flows Uphill" Thesis: Reisner famously argues that in the West, water doesn't follow the laws of physics; it follows the laws of money and power. He exposes how bureaucratic rivalries between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers led to "pork-barrel" projects that were often economically irrational but politically unstoppable. Narrative Style: Unlike many dry academic texts on water law, Reisner writes with the pace of a political thriller. He paints vivid portraits of the "water titans"—the ambitious, often ruthless men who redirected entire rivers to create empires in the desert.