
Cadillac Desert, Revised and Updated Edition
The American West and Its Disappearing Water
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Narrated by:
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Joe Spieler
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Kate Udall
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By:
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Marc Reisner
About this listen
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruptions and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. In Cadillac Desert, Marc Reisner writes of the earliest settlers, lured by the promise of paradise, and of the ruthless tactics employed by Los Angeles politicians and business interests to ensure the city's growth. He documents the bitter rivalry between two government giants, the Bureau of Reclamation and the US Army Corps of Engineers, in the competition to transform the West.
Based on more than a decade of research, Cadillac Desert is a stunning exposé and a dramatic, intriguing history of the creation of Eden - an Eden that may be only a mirage.
©2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion.
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Damn Near Perfect!
- By Charlie Morton on 12-08-19
By: Mark Arax
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Abominations
- Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-Destruction
- By: Lionel Shriver
- Narrated by: Lionel Shriver
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Novelist, cultural observer, and social satirist Lionel Shriver is among the sharpest talents of our age. A writer who embraces “under-expressed, unpopular or downright dangerous” points of view, she filets cherished shibboleths and the conformity of thought and attitude that has overtaken us.
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Fearless thinker
- By Irene E Nunn on 12-03-22
By: Lionel Shriver
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Under the Sky We Make
- How to Be Human in a Warming World
- By: Kimberly Nicholas PhD
- Narrated by: Kimberly Nicholas PhD
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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After speaking to the international public for close to fifteen years about sustainability, climate scientist Dr. Nicholas realized that concerned people were getting the wrong message about the climate crisis. Yes, companies and governments are hugely responsible for the mess we're in. But individuals CAN effect real, significant, and lasting change to solve this problem. Nicholas explores finding purpose in a warming world, combining her scientific expertise and her lived, personal experience in a way that seems fresh and deeply urgent.
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a book everyone needs to hear
- By John on 01-08-23
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The King of California
- J.G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire
- By: Mark Arax, Rick Wartzman
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 19 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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J. G. Boswell was the biggest farmer in America. He built a secret empire while thumbing his nose at nature, politicians, labor unions, and every journalist who ever tried to lift the veil on the ultimate "factory in the fields". The King of California is the previously untold account of how a Georgia slave-owning family migrated to California in the early 1920s, drained one of America 's biggest lakes in an act of incredible hubris and carved out the richest cotton empire in the world.
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Interesting story of California Ag history
- By Jean on 08-11-14
By: Mark Arax, and others
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The Memory Watcher
- By: Minka Kent
- Narrated by: Sally Vahle, Morgan Laure
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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When Autumn Carpenter stumbles upon the social media account of the family who adopted her infant daughter years ago, she finds herself instantly drawn into their picture-perfect existence. From behind a computer screen, Autumn watches Grace's every memory, from birthdays to holidays to bedtime snuggles. But what starts as an innocent fascination soon spirals into an addictive obsession that comes to a screeching halt the day the McMullen family closes their Instaface account.
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Webs within webs, within a large web...
- By Jenn on 05-03-17
By: Minka Kent
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The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee
- Native America from 1890 to the Present
- By: David Treuer
- Narrated by: Tanis Parenteau
- Length: 17 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The received idea of Native American history - as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did 150 Sioux die at the hands of the US Cavalry, the sense was, but Native civilization did as well. Growing up Ojibwe on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative.
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excellent text, awful narrator
- By D. Rubinstein on 12-01-19
By: David Treuer
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Five Families
- The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires
- By: Selwyn Raab
- Narrated by: Paul Costanzo
- Length: 33 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo, and Lucchese. For decades these Five Families ruled New York and built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire. Today, the Mafia is an endangered species, battered and beleaguered by aggressive investigators, incompetent leadership, betrayals, and generational changes that produced violent, unreliable leaders and recruits.
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7326451
- By Mark on 10-13-16
By: Selwyn Raab
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Returning Light
- Thirty Years on the Island of Skellig Michael
- By: Robert L. Harris
- Narrated by: Robert L. Harris
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1987, Robert Harris happened upon an unusual job posting in the local paper—a new warden service was being set up on the island of Skellig Michael, and the deadline was imminent. Just weeks later he was on his way to set up camp in one of Ireland’s most remote locations, unaware that he would be making that same journey every May for the next 30 years.
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Beautiful!
- By Elizabeth B. on 11-19-23
By: Robert L. Harris
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The Book of Why
- The New Science of Cause and Effect
- By: Judea Pearl, Dana Mackenzie
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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"Correlation does not imply causation". This mantra has been invoked by scientists for decades and has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. But today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, sparked by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and placed causality - the study of cause and effect - on a firm scientific basis.
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Great book! Not a great audiobook.
- By rrwright on 05-30-18
By: Judea Pearl, and others
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The Culture Clash
- A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding the Relationship Between Humans and Domestic Dogs
- By: Jean Donaldson
- Narrated by: Vanessa Daniels
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Generations of dogs have been labeled training lemons for requiring actual motivation when all along they were perfectly normal. Numerous other completely and utterly normal dogs have been branded as canine misfits simply because they grew up to act like dogs. Barking, chewing, sniffing, licking, jumping up, and occasionally (just like people) having arguments are as normal and natural for dogs as wagging tails and burying bones.
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almost had to stop listening due to the performer
- By AchieveObedience on 08-30-17
By: Jean Donaldson
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The Devil's Element
- Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance
- By: Dan Egan
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people.
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Exceptionally well crafted
- By DJJ on 03-30-23
By: Dan Egan
This book was very well investigated and reported. The author does get a little editorial at times, especially when talking about whether or not the investment was worth it, but that's easy to overlook given the obvious amount of work that went into this book.
Like others have stated, the audio is hard to get used to.
The only downside is that the book was written so long ago...so much history to catch up on since the writing in this book. The 2017 update is okay, but certainly missing the Marc Reisner command of information.
I would mark this as a must for educational reading.
Required Reading
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Amazing Story of the American West
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Stunning information and realization
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awesome book
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Great insight to many current challenges
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afterrward was a letdown.
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Informative but dragged on
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This book explains the history and lays out the future. Let’s make the changes.
Required Reading for those in the West!
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Great story, death rattle narration.
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The updates are helpful, bringing the book current to 2017.
A Wonderful Read!
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