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 94
Page xiv
... canals, Warren hoped to grant the land to private companies, which, in turn, would reclaim the deserts of the West under terms set by the states. This campaign culminated in the Carey Act of 1894, which awarded each western state up to ...
... canals, Warren hoped to grant the land to private companies, which, in turn, would reclaim the deserts of the West under terms set by the states. This campaign culminated in the Carey Act of 1894, which awarded each western state up to ...
Page xv
... canals under state laws or assign that job to private enter- prise. The federal government would build dams, but ... canal sites on the public domain (1888–90), and in the middle of the 1890s asked the USGS to measure the volume of the ...
... canals under state laws or assign that job to private enter- prise. The federal government would build dams, but ... canal sites on the public domain (1888–90), and in the middle of the 1890s asked the USGS to measure the volume of the ...
Page 1
... canals over ten years. That debt carried no interest. Federal reclamation promised to be self-supporting. As settlers re- paid their obligation to the government, money would become available to build new projects. Proceeds from land ...
... canals over ten years. That debt carried no interest. Federal reclamation promised to be self-supporting. As settlers re- paid their obligation to the government, money would become available to build new projects. Proceeds from land ...
Page 5
... canals in the West would make this method of agriculture attractive to eastern and south- ern farmers , permitting federal reclamation to become a national program . Eventually , it was hoped , the Reclamation Service would salvage ...
... canals in the West would make this method of agriculture attractive to eastern and south- ern farmers , permitting federal reclamation to become a national program . Eventually , it was hoped , the Reclamation Service would salvage ...
Page 6
... canals were constructed during those two years than in any arid or semiarid state. In 1904, the annual Irrigation Congress devoted part of its program to irrigation in the humid region, and Herbert Myrick, editor of the American ...
... canals were constructed during those two years than in any arid or semiarid state. In 1904, the annual Irrigation Congress devoted part of its program to irrigation in the humid region, and Herbert Myrick, editor of the American ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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