 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Marc Reisner |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subjects | |
| Published | 1986 (Viking Press) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Pages | 582 |
| ISBN | 9780140104325 |
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water is a 1986 American history book by Marc Reisner about land development and water policy in the western United States. The book largely focuses on the history of two federal agencies, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and their struggles to remake the American West in ways to satisfy national settlement and energy generation goals. The book concludes that the development-driven policies, formed when settling the West was the country's main concern, have had serious long-term negative effects on the environment and water quantity.
The book was revised and updated in 1993, with a new Afterword by the author. The book was again reissued in 2017, with a lengthy Postscript by Lawrie Mott, a former staff scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council.[1]
- ^ Penguin Random House. "Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Revised Edition". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 10 November 2024.