The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a most precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, now updated to cover recent developments in the West, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and businesses to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants -- the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- in the competition to transform the West.

Based on more than ten years of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning expose and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of an Eden -- an Eden that may be only a mirage.

This is a new release of the book published in May 1993.