Rating: 
Summary: 100 years of 20-20 hindsight
Review: A detailed and accurate catalog of our nations projects, poor, bad and horrible, on the water resources of half a continent. Reisner reports the greed, ignorance and arrogance of government agencies without a plan nor a policy nor guidance nor responsibility. How would we be living now, had the COE, USBR or anyone in government had any kind of thoughtful water policy other than dam everything?Few people are going to read this for fun. Researchers, water, hydroelectric and agricultural pros, folks with their own article or book in mind, political historians; all these are going to use this as a reference. Readers of purpose that may check the bibliography first or at least keep going back to it as they notice items in the text. The problem is that the Penguin edition is missing the bibliography for chapter 8. You may want to check another edition to make sure you've got the complete package. If you live west of the 100th meridian, drink water and read; the co! ! mplete book should be on your shelf. Put it up next to your copy of J. McPhee's "The Control of Nature".
Rating:
Summary: A sensational, yet compelling account of Western water.
Review: A book mixed with historical fact and the author's personal convictions and views. Although the book was compelling enough to read and laid down much of the history behind water problems in the West, it lacked objectivity and even-handedness in its narrative. Those familiar with works by Jeremy Rifkin will find a similar tone in Marc Reisner's sensationalistic approach to the topic (perhaps why it makes it a good T.V. script). A few footnotes and citations to back up his figures would have been helpful. Despite it's alarmist approach, it does provide a good introduction and background for those unfamiliar with one of the most politicized issues in the West.
Rating: 
Summary: Cadillac Desert-Power Politics
Review: Mister Reisner's book should be read by any taxpayer wondering were your dollars are going. This is not only a story on "Water in the West", it is a history of a small part of the greatest power in politics...money. Cadillac Desert appeals on many levels: Water war in the Owens Valley, failed engineering and devestating dam disasters, the ego of Dominy, Mullholland, and the like, the incredible largess to farmers, and the real owners of the greatest famland in the world-Oil Companies. Please do read this book; it will change the way you look at Washington and your politicians.
Rating:
Summary: It's so good I made it required reading for a college class.
Review: This is a wonderful and well researched book. I disagree with critics who claim that Reisner isn't accurate. Many authors have written about subjects contained in Cadillac Desert. Where independent confirmation can be obtained, Reisner seems amazingly accurate, and almost mainstream in his conclusions. By the way, for those who felt letdown by his other works, check out Game Wars. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Frightening
Review: The most frightening part of this book is how much of it read like fiction. When I sat back and thought about what I had just read...I would realise that this had come to pass. We live in a world where miracles can be bought and rivers destroyed.
Rating:
Summary: a documentary that reads like a suspense novel ...
Review: As I read Cadillac Desert I kept finding myself amused to discover that a documentary could keep me so spellbound. How can a book so chock-full of empirical information be so entertaining at the same time? Reisner should bottle the formula, so to speak. I feel far less ignorant concerning water in the American West, and far more empathetic toward those who actively voice their water concerns. However, I would add, that the author does a tremendous job of keeping a documentary tone and never does one feel imposed upon by any sense of self-righteous dogma or polemics. This definitely has to be the definitive work on the subject.
Rating: 
Summary: More Tirade than Truth?
Review: This book annoyed me from the outset. In the introduction Reisner seems to blame all of the evils of dam building on Mormons. That's like blaming the Indians for the destruction of the bison.
While most of the factual details are correct, the bulk of this book reads like a tabloid. It is full of conclusions without supporting data, snide characterizations of persons that are irrelevant to the story, and just about every other rhetorical device known to sophistry.
The stories are fascinating and alarming. The history of water development in the West is full of avarice, arrogance and power plays. It makes an epic tale. But Reisner's approach is so gossipy and mean-spirited, that I began to doubt many of his claims. He tells the reader over and over that this or that project was uneconomic, but only sporadically gives the supporting data. He uses technical engineering terms without explaining them (What is a keyhole trench?). And he never mentions any project that was successful, although I can't believe there weren't any.
He builds up straw men (like proposals to divert water from the Columbia River system to the Colorado or to Northern California, along with all the other rivers in the Northwest) which are not realistic threats, but are great for alarming the reader. If you are a born-again environmentalist, this book will feed your indignation and confirm your worst fears. If you accept Reisner's assumptions that wolves, grizzly bears and dangerous rapids justification enough by themselves to defeat a dam, you'll love this book. If not, you might start wondering, "Why not let the facts speak for themselves?" The book could have been more powerful and convincing if it were more objective and had more footnotes. As it is, Reisner seems to be preaching to the choir and arguing that we should abandon all hope, because everybody but the Sierra Club are greedy, dishonest bastards. I read this book because, living in the West, I wanted to know the history and to understand what factors are important in evaluating public works proposals and projects. I learned some of this, but I found it hard to separate truth from paranoia and knee-jerk condemnation of all things man-made.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping & easily readable story of the West's water
Review: I have been interested in the water supply of the West since moving to California as a young adult and spotting the California aquaducts. I couldn't put this book down once I started it. It is a wonderful story of investigative journalism of the quest for the West's most important resource - water. You will gain an understanding of the rivalry between the two government bureaucracies, the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. For the rest of your life, the tour of every dam you pass in the U.S. will become the highlight of your trip. You will look at water differently for the rest of your life. I can't over emphasize how readable, absorbing and alarming this book is. It is a must read for anyone curious about the water supply of the American West. I was so sad for the book to end that I bought the four tape video series produced by San Jose Public Television (for sale on Amazon) and watched the story again!
Rating:
Summary: An amazing, must-read book
Review: I don't think I've ever been so upset and disturbed while reading a book. For the first few hundred pages I could hardly take the relentless story of how our country and government continually despoiled our naturally resources for what were often ridiculously marginal benefits, almost always to benefit the rich. Sad to say, by the end of the book I was completely inured, and nothing surprised me anymore. This book is really the story of how the rich and powerful, with help from their paid Congressmen, abuse our natural resources to further enrich themselves off the backs of the taxpayers. Depspite the academic subject, the book was highly readable and compelling. I really think it is must reading for all Americans
Rating:
Summary: Swimming in Murky Waters
Review: 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.
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