I did however notice a thread of his personal feelings spilling over into some of the discussions that in the middle of the book made me stop devouring wholeheartedly his opinions and summaries of the world he describes. I was getting used to him throwing these facts out there and letting you draw the obvious conclusion but then he loses a bit of that objective voice. But this is a minor issue. Cadillac Desert is one of the most informative and startling books I've come across about the settlement of the American West, and to agree with another reviewer, this should be required reading for those living in that part of the U.S.

In a dazzling, mind-boggling array of incidents, figures, anecdotes, and scandals, Marc Reisner, in Cadillac Desert, airs the dirty laundry of the water management policy of the western United States. Reisner drags the policies, politicians, and policy-makers through the dried-up mud flats of their own creation. If we are to believe Reisner's searing and fascinating account of the money- and power-grubbers and their double-dealing policies, the infrastructure of our region's water system lies upon unsettled ground indeed, and we, the inheritors of this debacle, will be left mopping up whatever remains of the resources and money they squandered supposedly on our behalf.

Reisner offers his readers an account of the appalling environmental and economical situation of the west caused by the legacy of this water policy. He delivers stunning figures on the cost of the water projects versus the practical benefits they offered, shedding light on the disproportionate gains by the very few wealthy land owners over the small farmers, ranchers, and growers, many of whom were forced out of business as a direct result of these projects and the rates and distribution policies that were set. Throughout the course of the book, Reisner takes the reader on a horrific roller-coaster ride of facts and statistics: of environmental degradation caused by salt deposits, flooding, selenium accretion, drying aquifers, reduced stream flow, and dried wetlands; of Native American tribes stripped of their resources, denied the promises made in treaties, broken and demoralized after their treatment by the powerful guns of the Bureau of Reclamation, the Corps of Engineers, and Washington; of disasters of magnificent proportions caused by the breakage of ill-advised dams, dams built more for the purpose of attaining money and power than the protection of those downstream whom they would eventually destroy; of the potential future hazards caused by a decaying infrastructure, immense silt deposits, and a devotion to overconsumption; and, most dramatically, of the political intrigue, double-dealing, and destruction wrought by the people and agencies that stood to gain the most out of their pet projects.

Reisner's book raised pertinent points of debate regarding the pros and cons of our use and misuse of water in the west, but it also rekindled in me the desire to follow in the footsteps of the likes of David Brower, Sierra Club President and savior of the Grand Canyon -- heroic David fighting the Goliath of the political superpowers. It is a book that will outrage anyone weary of paying heavy taxes to support the welfare states, politicians, and wealthy business people who stand to profit from the powerlessness and carefully guarded ignorance of the American people.