An iconoclastic look at the history of the American West. While the
cowboy and his wide-open range are the symbols of the mythical
West, according to Worster the irrigation ditch is far more
representative of the real one. He shows how the West has become
the greatest "hydraulic society" in human history, one shaped by
and completely dependent upon its dams, reservoirs and canals. The
1902 National Reclamation Act was supposed to be a triumph of
democracy, providing water for small homesteaders. Instead, it
entrenched an agribusiness elite and an underclass of exploited
farm workers, creating a social order as hierarchical as those of
Egypt and other hydraulic empires of the past. Reclamation helped
make America a global power. But the system is already breaking
down as dams age, reservoirs silt up, water quality declines and
Americans increasingly question the system's moral legitimacy.
Worster's thesis is armed with the theoretical baggage of the
professional historian: Karl Wittfogel's notion of the hydraulic
society: Max Horkheimer's view that civilization's skewed
relationship with nature is the central problem of our time; French
social theorist Andre Gorz's contention that the total domination
of nature inevitably entails the domination of people by the
techniques of domination. Worster's brief blueprint for a more
democratic and ecological West owes a great deal to contemporary
bioregionalists' vernacular vision of decentralized, locally
oriented communities cognizant of their environments' natural
limits. His theory may be familiar and his alternative West
utopian, but Worster's scholarship is solid, as is his assertion
that Americans must face the fact that they cannot continue to
maximize wealth and empire and maximize democracy and freedom, too.
(Kirkus Reviews)
When Henry David Thoreau went for his daily walk, he would consult
his instincts on which direction to follow. More often than not his
inner compass pointed west or southwest. "The future lies that way
to me," he explained, "and the earth seems more unexhausted and
richer on that side." In his own imaginative way, Thoreau was
imitating the countless young pioneers, prospectors, and
entrepreneurs who were zealously following Horace Greeley's famous
advice to "go west." Yet while the epic chapter in American history
opened by these adventurous men and women is filled with stories of
frontier hardship, we rarely think of one of their greatest
problems--the lack of water resources. And the same difficulty that
made life so troublesome for early settlers remains one of the most
pressing concerns in the western states of the late-twentieth
century.
The American West, blessed with an abundance of earth and sky but
cursed with a scarcity of life's most fundamental need, has long
dreamed of harnessing all its rivers to produce unlimited wealth
and power. In Rivers of Empire, award-winning historian Donald
Worster tells the story of this dream and its outcome. He shows
how, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Mormons were the
first attempting to make that dream a reality, damming and
diverting rivers to irrigate their land. He follows this intriguing
history through the 1930s, when the federal government built
hundreds of dams on every major western river, thereby laying the
foundation for the cities and farms, money and power of today's
West. Yet while these cities have become paradigms of modern
American urban centers, and the farms successful high-tech
enterprises, Worster reminds usthat the costs have been extremely
high. Along with the wealth has come massive ecological damage, a
redistribution of power to bureaucratic and economic elites, and a
class conflict still on the upswing. As a result, the future of
this "hydraulic West" is increasingly uncertain, as water continues
to be a scarce resource, inadequate to the demand, and declining in
quality.
Rivers of Empire represents a radically new vision of the American
West and its historical significance. Showing how ecological change
is inextricably intertwined with social evolution, and reevaluating
the old mythic and celebratory approach to the development of the
West, Worster offers the most probing, critical analysis of the
region to date. He shows how the vast region encompassing our
western states, while founded essentially as colonies, have since
become the true seat of the American "Empire." How this imperial
West rose out of desert, how it altered the course of nature there,
and what it has meant for Thoreau's (and our own) mythic search for
freedom and the American Dream, are the central themes of this
eloquent and thought-provoking story--a story that begins and ends
with water.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
