Water and American Government: The Reclamation Bureau, National Water Policy, and the West, 1902-1935Donald 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. |
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Page xii
... agriculture more than dou- bled the nation's cultivated land. That increase, along with millions of acres abandoned ... agricultural foundation, the American West would forever re- main the nation's backwater. To Bryan and many of his ...
... agriculture more than dou- bled the nation's cultivated land. That increase, along with millions of acres abandoned ... agricultural foundation, the American West would forever re- main the nation's backwater. To Bryan and many of his ...
Page xvi
... Agriculture to explore prac- tical problems of desert agriculture , including the amount of water needed to grow various crops and how to reduce litigation over water rights . Never- theless , when the Reclamation Act passed Congress ...
... Agriculture to explore prac- tical problems of desert agriculture , including the amount of water needed to grow various crops and how to reduce litigation over water rights . Never- theless , when the Reclamation Act passed Congress ...
Page 2
... agriculture. Established irrigation farmers were more likely to repay their debt to the government than were poor settlers new to the West. In 1880, three hundred thousand acres were irrigated in the entire United States. That amount ...
... agriculture. Established irrigation farmers were more likely to repay their debt to the government than were poor settlers new to the West. In 1880, three hundred thousand acres were irrigated in the entire United States. That amount ...
Page 5
... 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 abandoned , cutover , and swamp land in the humid ...
... 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 abandoned , cutover , and swamp land in the humid ...
Page 6
... Agriculture. Congressman John H. Small of North Carolina asked for $1 million from the same fund to dry up the Dismal Swamp in Virginia and his state.24Congressman Halvor Steenerson of Minnesota wanted to create a new reclamation fund ...
... Agriculture. Congressman John H. Small of North Carolina asked for $1 million from the same fund to dry up the Dismal Swamp in Virginia and his state.24Congressman Halvor Steenerson of Minnesota wanted to create a new reclamation fund ...
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