Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

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Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

by Marc Reisner

4.20 · rating details · 1,604 ratings · 273 reviews

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 ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthl...more

Paperback, 582 pages

Published January 1st 1993 by Penguin Books (first published 1986)

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Jul 31, 2011

Paula rated it

Shelves: non-fiction, best-reads-of-2010, second-or-third-time-around

A year later, I've given CD a second read and must, finally, award it the 5th star (for whatever that's worth) that it so deserves. One of the most scathing, witty and instructive books of political /environmental/economic journalism that I've ever had the pleasure (and horror) to read. I do so wish Reisner was still around to bring us up to date on this most vital and fascinating subject. (Afterward to revised 1992 edition is as close to contemporary as CD gets).

Brilliant enough ...moreA year later, I've given CD a second read and must, finally, award it the 5th star (for whatever that's worth) that it so deserves. One of the most scathing, witty and instructive books of political /environmental/economic journalism that I've ever had the pleasure (and horror) to read. I do so wish Reisner was still around to bring us up to date on this most vital and fascinating subject. (Afterward to revised 1992 edition is as close to contemporary as CD gets).

Brilliant enough for 5 stars, but it caused me a bit of reader fatigue due to its relentless comprehensiveness. Impeccably researched, Cadillac Desert meets the highest standards of investigative reportage. Which is not to say that Reisner is absolutely objective (always an illusive goal at best) nor sober in his approach. At times, his tone borders on the sarcastic (as if he were saying, you are not going to believe exactly how incredibly stupid this idea was). His account is apolitical in the sense that he depicts Democrats and Republicans, both on the state and national levels, as bipartisan in their promotion and funding of the most suspect (environmentally, socially, economically)dams and water projects, going back at least as far as the New Deal. Reisner takes a close and critical look at the very notion of irrigation farming in a desert, its costs, benefits and long term consequences (depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer; deadly salinity levels of land and water, the making of “wild river” an oxymoron, etc.). An apt secondary subtitle for the book might be “Water flows uphill toward political power and money.” An entirely concrete example of this aphorism would be the California Aqueduct, particularly that section which carries water over the Tehachapis to L.A: “The water is carried across the Tehachapis in five separate stages. The final cyclopean one, which occurs at the A.D. Edmonston Pumping Plant, raises the water 1926 feet—the Eiffel Tower atop the Empire State—in a single lift . . . . At their peak capacity, if it is ever reached, the Edmonston pumps will require six billion kilowatts of electricity every year . . . . Moving water in California requires more electrical energy than is used by several states.”
First published in 1986 and subsequently revised in 1993, Cadillac Desert, if less prophetic now than it was 20-25 years ago, remains relevant and instructive. And if you ever thought there might be a silver-lining to pork-barrel politics, it’s a must read. In light of the recent financial system “bail-out,” and with many touting “infrastructure” projects as a solution to our current high unemployment and economic malaise, reviewing the history of perhaps the greatest public works program ever anywhere will give you pause. Dams and water projects (California’s Central Valley Project and the Central Arizona Project are just two examples) can have both intended and unintended consequences that make them less than great ideas. Engineers and “experts” (Bureau of Reclamation, Army Corps of Engineers, Water Commissioners, Resource Specialists, etc.) can be as greedy, short-sighted, and blinded by belief in their own expertise and desire for power as anyone else.
Reisner’s description of the proposed Narrows Dam on the Lower South Platte River in Colorado (thankfully, a project that was subsequently abandoned, though it was all too typical of projects that have been built) makes for a good summary:
“Here was a dam that the state engineer said would deliver only a third of the water it promised and could conceivably collapse; a project whose official cost estimate . . . would barely suffice to relocate twenty-six miles of railroad track; a project whose real cost, whatever it turned out to be, would therefore be written off, in substantial measure, to ‘recreation,’ though the water would be unsafe to touch; a project whose prevailing interest rate was one-fifth the rates banks were charging in the late 1970s; a project many of whose beneficiaries owned more land than the law permitted in order to receive subsidized water; a project that might, if the state engineer was correct, seep enough water to turn the town of Fort Morgan into a marsh; a project that would pile more debt onto the Bureau’s Missouri Basin Project; a project that would generate not a single kilowatt of hydroelectric power and would be all but worthless for flood control.”
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Aug 31, 2008

Randy rated it

I'm stealing a review from a guy on Amazon that sums up my thoughts better than I could...and I completely reiterate that the PBS 4-part series (which I got from the local library) is HIGHLY recommended...standalone or as a prelude to the book. More specifically, I'd recommend the first 3 tapes, the 4th is a bit too much environmentalist for my taste (related, not Reisner narrated).

By J. Charles Hansen (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
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May 17, 2008

Heather rated it

Shelves: nonfiction-misc

this book is a stunning chronicle of the damming of america's rivers, mainly in the west. i felt that i had to wade through far too much detail about the people (politicians, newsmen, townfolk, MORMONS...), and their motives, the paradigms of the old west that contributed, the bills, and the agencies (bureau of reclamation, army corps of engineers...) responsible for these horrors. BUT it was worth it in the end to see the big picture. unfortunately at this point it seems that there is no turnin...more

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Jun 22, 2011

Matthew rated it

This book was a slog for me, and yet one of the most important I've ever read. I guess my main complaint is style (he often takes off for too long on a tangent before finally circling back around to pick up his original point). But that's my only complaint, and it might just be the best book I've read that shows in matter of fact ways (as opposed to partisan) the devastating effectiveness of what happens when conservative's worst nightmare ("Big Government") and liberal's (the corrupti...moreThis book was a slog for me, and yet one of the most important I've ever read. I guess my main complaint is style (he often takes off for too long on a tangent before finally circling back around to pick up his original point). But that's my only complaint, and it might just be the best book I've read that shows in matter of fact ways (as opposed to partisan) the devastating effectiveness of what happens when conservative's worst nightmare ("Big Government") and liberal's (the corruption of gov't. by big business interests) combine to rape our environment while simultaneously bilking taxpayers out of billions in order to virtually give away free water rights to wealthy agribusiness. But it also details a component of "manifest destiny" that is rarely discussed, that not only explains how and why the west was won (as in conquered, based on a belief that God wanted us to so badly to settle the west that he would make crop growing land out of desert) but how this belief, along with the myth of the "rugged individualists" that were doing the conquering, created an entire western population that actually have NO BUSINESS (from 'what nature intended' perspective) BEING THERE!

I began reading this book after taking my sons to see the movie "Rango" which is actually a kids version of "Chinatown" (minus, thankfully, the rape and incest). And while I was primarily interested in the so called "California Water Wars", this book gave me a stunning history of how and why gov't. and business interests combined to conquer nature (destroy it) in order to settle and make farm land out of desert land that essentially covers the entire western HALF of the United States. And no matter what your politics, ALL ARE TO BLAME in the environmental mess created, for the millions who will soon be without water in most of those states, and the billions all of us who are paying so that wealthy interests could have access to shockingly cheap water rights! While the population of that entire half of the nation rails against the abuses of "big gov't." (virtually all of those states vote GOP) the ONLY REASON THEY HAVE WATER WAS DUE TO FDR, THE NEW DEAL, AND SPECIFICALLY THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION!! They literally would not be there without them! And of course the flip side of that is that gov't. MUST ALSO TAKE THE BLAME IN BEING A MAJOR FACTOR in the settling of those lands, trashing the environment, and putting us billions of dollars in debt so a bunch of thankless westerners could show how rugged they were (thanks to gov't. policies they normally hate) by converting desert into farmland for the wealthy!! And while the hypocrisy of that ilk is not surprising, I also think people like Rachel Maddow should do more research on the subject of the effects of damming rivers out west before standing proudly in front of Hoover! (less)

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Mar 04, 2011

Max rated it

In 1986, Marc Reisner published a book called Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water. In it, Reisner fastidiously documents the appropriation of the West’s most valuable resources, water. The book, now 20 years old, prophetically detailed many of the problems of water supply and land degradation that we are now facing today. Water is the lifeblood of humanity and how we care for this resource will determine our fate. Cadillac Desert is scathing critique of American pol...moreIn 1986, Marc Reisner published a book called Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water. In it, Reisner fastidiously documents the appropriation of the West’s most valuable resources, water. The book, now 20 years old, prophetically detailed many of the problems of water supply and land degradation that we are now facing today. Water is the lifeblood of humanity and how we care for this resource will determine our fate. Cadillac Desert is scathing critique of American policy on water development, specifically towards the Bureau of Reclamation’s gun-slinging approach towards dam building. This book was the seminal work on water development and it reverberations will continue for however long we live in the Western United States.

In all of Marc Reisner's work, he explores the relation humans have with their environment and how we have put extreme amounts of stress on that relationship. Throughout Cadillac Desert, Reisner describes the extent to which the government has augmented the environment of California, as succinctly described here:

"The whole state thrives, even survives, by moving water from where it is, and presumably isn't needed, to where it isn't, and presumably is needed. No other state has done as much to fructify its deserts, make over its flora and fauna, and rearrange the hydrology God gave it. No other place has put as many people where they probably have no business being. There is no place like it anywhere on earth. Thirty-one million people (more than the population of Canada), an economy richer than all but seven nations' in the world, one third of the table food grown in the United States---and none of it remotely conceivable within the preexisting natural order (333)."

Before Cadillac Desert, people looked at dams and other water developments as an example of human ingenuity and necessary for continued human existence. These leviathan alterations though have left nature severely scarred and Reisner uncompromisingly details the effects uncontrolled water development has had:

“What federal water development has amounted to, in the end, is a uniquely productive, creative vandalism... of both our natural heritage and our economic future... Glen Canyon is gone. The Colorado Delta is dead. The Missouri bottomlands have disappeared. Nine out of ten acres of wetlands in California have vanished, and with them millions of migratory birds. The great salmon runs in the Columbia, the Sacramento, the San Joaquin, and dozens of tributaries are diminished or extinct. The prairie is civilized and is dull… And it didn’t happen only in the West. Much of the same thing happened in the East, especially in the South, where an incredible diversity and history and beauty in the old river valleys lie submerged under hundreds of featureless reservoirs... Who is going to pay to rescue the salt-poisoned land? To dredge trillions of tons of silt out of the expiring reservoirs? . . . Somewhere down the line our descendants are going to inherit a bill for all this vaunted success.''(485-86)
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Feb 08, 2010

Patrick rated it

this is a subject i find fascinating, but if you are not into reading about the west and more specifically its water supply, don't read this book. if however, you do like that subject, this is a great book. it is a bit long, and some of the chapters get repetitive (the bureau of reclamation builds a huge, stupid dam, the corps of engineers builds a huge, stupid dam, the bureau builds another huge, stupid dam...), however the history of water policy in the west in one of the biggest nation...more

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May 22, 2009

Thomas rated it

Why would anyone read a 500 page book about irrigation and dam building? If you are curious why Los Angeles has a population of 10 million, and why California has one of the richest economies in the world, this book has the answers. What began as an attempt to deliver water to poor, struggling farmers, became a nearly unstoppable machine that made wealthy men richer, concentrated political power in the hands of a few, and made a mockery of the notion that our country is based on a free-market ec...moreWhy would anyone read a 500 page book about irrigation and dam building? If you are curious why Los Angeles has a population of 10 million, and why California has one of the richest economies in the world, this book has the answers. What began as an attempt to deliver water to poor, struggling farmers, became a nearly unstoppable machine that made wealthy men richer, concentrated political power in the hands of a few, and made a mockery of the notion that our country is based on a free-market economy.

The Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers have built thousands of dams in the past hundred years. Some of them made sense-- they provide hydroelectric power, help flood control, irrigate land, and provide drinking water to cities. But many more dams are economic boondoggles, constructed primarily for political favors, subsidized by taxpayer dollars, and ruining the land that it is supposed to help.

There is a lot of doom and gloom in this book, but the afterward to the revised edition leaves us with hope. The values of our society have changed, and new dam projects have largely ceased. Part of it is due to the fact that few economically feasible projects remain, though that didn't stop us in the past. But with the population in the American West continuing to grow and aquifers rapidly depleting, an upcoming water crisis looms in our future. What will we do? Will we continue in our profligate ways and become water imperialists, taking advantage of our proximity to Canada and diverting their vast quantities of "unused" rivers? Or are we going to change our policies, eliminate waste and perverse subsidies, make farmers pay market prices for their water, and retire land kept alive by taxpayer money? Can we overcome powerful lobbies that maintain the status quo? Can individual states (and their congressional representatives) focus on the greater good and welfare of their constituents beyond the next election cycle? Successful and lasting change will only come about through great debate and even greater compromise. We will be forced to sacrifice certain goods for the sake of others, but there is really no alternative. Protecting our water supply will require a tremendous restructuring of both energy policy and the agricultural industry. The future is uncertain but potential for positive change is exciting.

My only complaint about this book is that it is too long. One could cut 100 pages without losing any of the power that it packs. Still, it is a tremendous resource-- informing the general reader about a poorly understood aspect our past, and warning us that business as usual will end badly for all of us. The time to act is now.(less)

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May 01, 2007

Miranda rated it

Water, water everywhere and not a drop of it to drink...or in this case, to irrigate the American West. This book painstakingly chronicles the stories and political hoo-ha behind the major water projects that opened up the American West. The most fascinating story was about the watering of Los Angeles, but from there, the book gets really tedious. It makes me glad I'm moving back to the slightly more sustainable lands of the east coast.

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Apr 20, 2011

Penni rated it

This book was dense and hard to keep straight at times (so many people, so many locations), but it is a fantastic history of our country from the point of view of our most precious resource. I do get the feeling it is a bit biased, as the book rails against the Bureau of Reclamation (unendingly), the Army Corps of Engineers, big/factory farms, and many politicians. I couldn't help but agree with everything he said. Government agencies that are only motivated by continuing to create work for t...more

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Jul 11, 2010

Caleb rated it

A read based on the Good Reads rec of Mr Patrick Harris. Harris apparently tolerates idealism more than me. An interesting topic--the West and its water troubles--is mired in writing long on polemic for sections and needing more facts. I was confused for long stretches what Reisner wanted. He was very close to no-growth, but not quite there, and maybe just anti-farming, which is reasonable. Also, the book has been out for almost 30 years and been revised, but suffers from editing problems s...more

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May 09, 2010

Anna rated it

Shelves: borrowed

This book is still incredibly relevant, despite being published 20+ years ago. The history of the American West is so closely tied to water politics. Overlooking the issues Reisner covers here would give an incomplete picture of what really happens behind the scenes of Western development.

When I first moved to California's San Joaquin Valley as a newspaper reporter, I read a few passages from this book to better educate myself on the history and long-standing battles of the region, a...more

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Apr 12, 2009

Tarn rated it

Fascinating and journalistic look into the way that water has built the West and the barely-believable boondoggles that occur[red:]. Interesting biographical - almost titillating - information on certain bureaucrats and colorful outrage at some of the more egregious episodes of public bilking too. My main criticisms are 1) the book bogs down a bit after exciting, page-turning episodes involving the Colorado River, Los Angeles, or the foundations of the Bureau of Reclamation, and 2) the subject ...more

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May 24, 2009

Matt rated it

This was a fascinating history of dam-building in the American West. I did not know that the book would be primarily about dams when I bought it, because the subtitle is "The american west and its disappearing water" which seems like it could be more broad, but I got somewhat intrigued by dams after seeing some big ones out west, so the potentially misleading subtitle didn't reduce my enjoyment of the book.

Key points:

1. The Bureau of Reclamation and the Corp...more

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Dec 28, 2011

lyell bark rated it

gr8 history about how the western usa was turned from an arid, unlivable hellscape with no water into an arid, unlivable hellscape with lots of water at great economic and environmental cost. thanks.

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May 11, 2010

Michael Mckinney rated it

An amazing exposition of talent and research. Reisner details the discovery and mapping of the Colorado river personifying the Grand Canyon and giving identity, animation and character to the water. The river becomes more anorexic and salinated as the book nears its conclusion, mirroring the river it is describing.
As a scientist, Reisner researches the qualities of living created throughout the Western United States, discusses in detail the farming practices of California, Texas, Utah,...more

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Jun 13, 2010

Kenny Short rated it

Recommends it for: History buffs and Western Americans

Shelves: history

For anyone interested in the history of the West and all those who live in the American West and are concerned with its future, this is a must read book. Chalk full of little known, scandalous, and emblematic tales of the settling, development and growth of the primarily desert West, Cadillac Desert is a great read in the sense that it mixes the great academic historical research with good story-telling. One of the best history books I've read and learned from, there is more to know in this book...more

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May 13, 2008

Billy added it

Shelves: boy-interrupted

...just a chapter or two in, i already predict this will be one of the more important books i read this decade

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Jan 05, 2011

Steven Peterson rated it

An interesting work. Water in the American Southwest is a key issue. The land itself is pretty arid and water is at a premium. Simply, there is not enough water for the many competing demands--from native Americans to water promised Mexico to water in the American West. This work chronicles the struggles for various regions to get the water that they need. It is not always a pretty story (Los Anegeles' thirst for water and some of the tactics used is, at least, unsavory). Sometimes, I think that...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Vance Dubberly rated it

If you drink water you should read this. It will tell you how you filled your glass. Water is at the center of all human life and the process of funneling it into a form that can be used by millions of people in predominantly dry areas is astounding, entertaining, and quite grim. The book is an interesting mix of good story telling, good history, good questions, and deep knowledge. Can't recommend this enough, both for it's subject matter and for the kind of clear non-politicized information i...more

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Jun 07, 2010

Marie rated it

· review of another edition

This book is the reason I dislike textbooks, every high school/college student should read books like this. Any more of a comment would get too political but everyone should read this book. The best synopsis of US (particularly western US) history, politics, environmental science, civil engineering, etc. Very well written and eye opening. If anyone reads it and wants to discuss, let me know. I am badgering my dad with questions when I see him next as he worked for the DWR for many years and...more

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Sep 04, 2009

Katie rated it

This nonfiction account of our society's utter failure to manage our water resources is the best nonfiction book I've read since I was 16 and obsessed with Carl Sagan. Read it if you've ever appreciated a wild and scenic river, if you want to know how LA became a sprawling mess, if you want to know how the Grand Coulee Dam made world war II winable, and if you want to know how big dams helped bring down Jimmy Carter's presidency. This book is awesome and terrible. I read this book over a year...more

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Sep 21, 2009

Matt rated it

Shelves: for-fun, nonfiction

I wish the book were more current however the astute follower of the water issues in our country today should be able to pick up where Reisner leaves off. It is fun to view the areas spoken of in the book with Google Earth, while reading about them. Follow American's great rivers and see the stair-stepping dams in succession. See the snaking aqueducts and the islands of green they create in the middle of barren deserts. This book does indeed make you stop and think but the genie is out of the bo...more

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Oct 14, 2011

Katie rated it

So, as somebody who works in this field, I may be a little more interested in the topic of water resources than the average reader. But that doesn't mean that I should be any more vested than anybody else who lives in the West or pays federal taxes for that matter. Because as Cadillac Desert so deftly demonstrates, it's about all of us.

Yes, the book is over 500 pages. Yes, it can be dense at times. Yes, there's an entire chapter dedicated to delving into the extremely nuanced rivalr...more

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Apr 22, 2011

Matthew rated it

No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't keep with this book.

The first part of the book discusses the manner in which officials from Los Angeles hijack the water from the Owens Valley in order to line the pockets of several businessmen, while ostensibly securing water for the future of Los Angeles. It is a compelling story, but early on, you get the sense that Marc Reisner is writing with a pretty irritated tone.

That tone persists as Reisner details a series of dam co...more

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Mar 15, 2011

Wade rated it

Shelves: politics, history

Marc Reisner describes the complexities that accompany the history and issues regarding the West's most valuable resource; water. He chronicles the formation of and subsequent power struggles between the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers including their vast dam building projects over the past century. Like any good book, rather than trying to push a particular conclusion, it presents the reader with many new (and sometimes unanswerable) questions.

Is it a...more

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Dec 31, 2010

Noel rated it

Shelves: wishlist

Wow! This book, which is a history of water development in the western US from about 1880 to about 1990, is astounding. What I found most fascinating, and appalling, was the rampant, wasteful and shortsighted dam projects build by the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. Through an inexplicable interagency competition and a perception that rivers with freshwater flows reaching ocean are wasting water, the Corps and Bureau have dammed nearly every damable site on nearly every...more

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Jul 01, 2011

Glenn rated it

So it's a little nerdy to give this book a 5-star rating, but I embrace it. Marc Reisner tells the tale of American history through the lens of water development (particularly focusing on the west). The science, economic and politics of construction and consumption come to life through the feuds that all-too-often ended in disenfranchisement and even death. While a couple years old at this point, it sets the table for the abuse this precious resource is taking in our country.

Sensatio...more

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Apr 18, 2011

Margot rated it

Shelves: non-fiction

Reisner has a delightful way with language, making this some of the most gripping, page-turning nonfiction I've read. I'm convinced that beyond opposable thumbs, the main thing that sets humans apart from other animals is our unquenchable desire to transform the landscape around us to our own desires instead of conforming to the limitations of nature. Reisner highlights the efforts in that direction, related to water in the western U.S, with an attention to detail and an eye to characterization ...more

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Nov 17, 2009

Amy Wilder rated it

I mean, this does not sound like a good read - important and interesting maybe, but the benefit of reading a journalist's book is that journalists know that it's about finding the story that makes in intriguing to learn the stuff that's important to know.

And so this book changed the way I think about the world. Because it kept me interested in learning how pork-barrel politics push expensive projects that make water "flow upwards towards money and power" as Reisner quotes ...more

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Sep 29, 2009

Litbitch rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I'd probably give this 3 stars for me personally, because it wasn't quite what I thought it would be and I wasn't terribly engaged in the topic. But if you're interested in the history of the politics of water, it's a 5. Well written and often funny. I was expecting more on environmental impact, but that's scattered and minimal. While the devastation of the West, in particular, and the untenable state we're in is the ultimate result of the actions he chronicles, the actions themselves are the fo...more

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