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 73
Page xiv
... settlers and for federal aid. The West was not unified economically or politically—nor would it become unified in the years immediately following 1902. The grazing states had been hard hit by the blizzard and drought of the late 1880s ...
... settlers and for federal aid. The West was not unified economically or politically—nor would it become unified in the years immediately following 1902. The grazing states had been hard hit by the blizzard and drought of the late 1880s ...
Page 1
... settler could claim more than 160 acres of public land. The public land within project boundaries cost settlers nothing, save for a filing fee, but entrants were required to repay their share of the cost of constructing dams and canals ...
... settler could claim more than 160 acres of public land. The public land within project boundaries cost settlers nothing, save for a filing fee, but entrants were required to repay their share of the cost of constructing dams and canals ...
Page 2
... settlers new to the West. In 1880, three hundred thousand acres were irrigated in the entire United States. That amount increased to more than 4.1 million acres in 1890 and 7.3 million acres in 1900.5In 1902, Frederick Newell estimated ...
... settlers new to the West. In 1880, three hundred thousand acres were irrigated in the entire United States. That amount increased to more than 4.1 million acres in 1890 and 7.3 million acres in 1900.5In 1902, Frederick Newell estimated ...
Page 8
... settlers ran the gamut from former tenant farmers who had saved enough from sharecropping to buy their own land on the Rio Grande Project to at least one Harvard graduate on the Shoshone Project, in Wyoming. Few settlers came from the ...
... settlers ran the gamut from former tenant farmers who had saved enough from sharecropping to buy their own land on the Rio Grande Project to at least one Harvard graduate on the Shoshone Project, in Wyoming. Few settlers came from the ...
Page 11
... settlers dis- appointed him: They are pessimistic and have no hopeful outlook. They tell me of a drouth last summer ... settler on the Elephant Butte Project be provided with a list of the disgruntled.35 On occasion, Reclamation Record ...
... settlers dis- appointed him: They are pessimistic and have no hopeful outlook. They tell me of a drouth last summer ... settler on the Elephant Butte Project be provided with a list of the disgruntled.35 On occasion, Reclamation Record ...
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