Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902-1935University of California Press, 2002 M12 31 - 408 pages 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 85
Page xiv
... Congress in the decades after the Civil War: the two major sources of pork in the federal budget, Civil War veterans' pensions and river and harbor appropriations, both benefited the eastern half of the nation al- most exclusively. The ...
... Congress in the decades after the Civil War: the two major sources of pork in the federal budget, Civil War veterans' pensions and river and harbor appropriations, both benefited the eastern half of the nation al- most exclusively. The ...
Page xv
... Congress felt toward the West. Nevertheless, reclamation was still a western measure. The West had the power to block important legislation in the Senate. That, not the appeal of reclamation as an instrument of social reform, explains ...
... Congress felt toward the West. Nevertheless, reclamation was still a western measure. The West had the power to block important legislation in the Senate. That, not the appeal of reclamation as an instrument of social reform, explains ...
Page xvi
... Congress created the Office of Irrigation Investigations within the Office of Experiment Stations in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore prac- tical problems of desert agriculture , including the amount of water needed to grow ...
... Congress created the Office of Irrigation Investigations within the Office of Experiment Stations in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore prac- tical problems of desert agriculture , including the amount of water needed to grow ...
Page 3
... Congress, the New York Times predicted that the reclamation fund would be five times greater than the friends of federal reclamation had expected. In 1904, when construction began on the first national water projects, the fund contained ...
... Congress, the New York Times predicted that the reclamation fund would be five times greater than the friends of federal reclamation had expected. In 1904, when construction began on the first national water projects, the fund contained ...
Page 6
... Congress, whose conferences traditionally were held in the West, to include representatives from all parts of the nation, particularly the South. The drought that blan- keted much of the South and East in 1899 and 1900 aided their ...
... Congress, whose conferences traditionally were held in the West, to include representatives from all parts of the nation, particularly the South. The drought that blan- keted much of the South and East in 1899 and 1900 aided their ...
Contents
1 | |
Federal Reclamation 19021909 | 32 |
Twin Falls and Rupert | 65 |
Federal Reclamation 19091917 | 96 |
Federal Reclamation 19171935 | 123 |
The Reclamation Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs | 154 |
Illustrations | 180 |
The Yakima and the Pima | 181 |
The Strange Career of Public Power | 202 |
Water Politics 19201935 | 235 |
Retrospect and Significance | 272 |
ABBREVIATIONS | 297 |
NOTES | 299 |
INDEX | 389 |
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Common terms and phrases
A. P. Davis Administrative agriculture American April arid Arizona Ballinger bill Boulder Dam build Bureau of Reclamation California Carey Act Central Colorado River Commission Commissioner of Indian Cong construction Corps of Engineers cost crops dams and canals December districts electricity Elwood Mead F. H. Newell farm farmers federal government federal reclamation flood control Franklin K Herbert Hoover Hiram Johnson Homecroft Hoover hydroelectric Ibid Idaho Indian Affairs Indian Office irrigation irrigation projects January July June legislation March Maxwell million acres Minidoka Project Mississippi Montana Muscle Shoals October percent Pima public land Reclamation Act Reclamation Bureau reclamation fund reclamation projects Reclamation Record Reclamation Service Report reservation reservoir River Project Roosevelt Salt River Project Secretary Senate settlers Snake River streams Theodore Roosevelt tion town United Valley Washington water policy Water Power water projects water rights West western Yakima Yakima River York