| Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West Contributor(s): Fiege, Mark (Author), Cronon, William (Foreword by) |
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ISBN: 0295980133 ISBN-13: 9780295980133 Publisher: University of Washington Press OUR PRICE: $28.50 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: July 2000 Annotation: Irrigation came to the arid West in a wave of optimism about the power of water to make the desert bloom. Mark Fiege's fascinating and innovative study of irrigation in southern Idaho's Snake River valley describes a complex interplay of human and natural systems. Using vast quantities of labor, irrigators built dams, excavated canals, laid out farms, and brought millions of acres into cultivation. But at each step, nature rebounded and compromised the intended agricultural order. The result was a new and richly textured landscape made of layer upon layer of technology and intractable natural forces -- one that engineers and farmers did not control with the precision they had anticipated. Irrigated Eden vividly portrays how human actions inadvertently helped to create a strange and sometimes baffling ecology. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Technology & Engineering | Agriculture - Forestry - Science | Environmental Science (see Also Chemistry - Environmental) - History | United States - State & Local - General |
| Dewey: 333.913 |
| Series: Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books |
| Physical Information: 0.89" H x 6.12" W x 9.26" (1.20 lbs) 320 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Western U.S. - Geographic Orientation - Idaho |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Irrigation came to the arid West in a wave of optimism about the power of water to make the desert bloom. Mark Fiege's fascinating and innovative study of irrigation in southern Idaho's Snake River valley describes a complex interplay of human and natural systems. Using vast quantities of labor, irrigators built dams, excavated canals, laid out farms, and brought millions of acres into cultivation. But at each step, nature rebounded and compromised the intended agricultural order. The result was a new and richly textured landscape made of layer upon layer of technology and intractable natural forces--one that engineers and farmers did not control with the precision they had anticipated. Irrigated Eden vividly portrays how human actions inadvertently helped to create a strange and sometimes baffling ecology. Winner of the Idaho Library Association Book Award, 1999 Winner of the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Award, Forest History Society, 1999-2000 |