Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902-1935 - Hardcover

by Donald J. Pisani (Author)

Donald Pisani's history of perhaps the boldest economic and social program ever undertaken in the United States--to reclaim and cultivate vast areas of previously unusable land across the country-shows in fascinating detail how ambitious government programs fall prey to the power of local interest groups and the federal system of governance itself. What began as the underwriting of a variety of projects to create family farms and farming communities had become by the 1930s a massive public works and regional development program, with an emphasis on the urban as much as on the rural West.

Front Jacket

The author is a master in his field. No one until now has told so much of this story in a solidly researched, critical, and convincing fashion. This book will appeal not only to historians but also to political scientists, legal scholars, environmentalists, and others interested in public policy, federalism, and the politics of water in American society.--Norris Hundley, author of The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, a History

A tour de force. It deals with a critical period in which commitments were made that profoundly influenced the nation's environment. In brief case studies [Pisani] puts a human face on events and places.--Martin Ridge, author of Writing the History of the American West and coauthor of Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier

Back Jacket

The author is a master in his field. No one until now has told so much of this story in a solidly researched, critical, and convincing fashion. This book will appeal not only to historians but also to political scientists, legal scholars, environmentalists, and others interested in public policy, federalism, and the politics of water in American society.--Norris Hundley, author of The Great Thirst: Californians and Water, a History

"A tour de force. It deals with a critical period in which commitments were made that profoundly influenced the nation's environment. In brief case studies [Pisani] puts a human face on events and places."--Martin Ridge, author of Writing the History of the American West and coauthor of Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier

Author Biography

Donald J. Pisani is Merrick Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. His books include a previous history to which this one is a sequel, To Reclaim a Divided West (1992), as well as Water, Land, and Law in the West (1996) and From the Family Farm to Agribusiness (California, 1984).