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Author Doyle, Martin, 1973- author.

Title The source : how rivers made America and America remade its rivers / Martin Doyle.

Publication Info. New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2018]
©2018

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  551.483 DOY    Check Shelf
 Farmington, Main Library - Adult Department  973 DOY    Check Shelf
 Granby, Main Library - Adult  551.484 DOY    Check Shelf
 Manchester, Main Library - Non Fiction  551.483 DOYLE    Check Shelf
 Mansfield, Main Library - Adult Nonfiction  551.483 DOYLE    Check Shelf
 New Britain, Main Library - Non Fiction  551.48 DOY    Check Shelf
 Newington, Lucy Robbins Welles Library - Adult Department  333.9162 DOYLE    Check Shelf
 West Hartford, Noah Webster Library - Non Fiction  333.9162 DOYLE    Check Shelf
Edition First edition.
Description 349 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-334) and index.
Contents Part one: Federalism. Navigating the republic ; Life on the Mississippi ; The rise of the levees ; Flood control -- Part two: Sovereignty and property. Water wars ; A new water market -- Part three: Taxation. Running water ; Burning rivers -- Part four: Regulation. Regulating power ; The power of a river -- Part five: Conservation. Channelization ; The restoration economy.
Summary A history of the role of rivers in shaping American politics, economics, and society draws on experts from diverse backgrounds to explore how the natural and human transformations of rivers have made a significant impact on the nation.
"America has more than 250,000 rivers, coursing over more than 3 million miles, connecting the disparate regions of the United States. On a map they can look like the veins, arteries, and capillaries of a continent-wide circulatory system, and in a way they are. Over the course of this nation's history rivers have served as integral trade routes, borders, passageways, sewers, and sinks. Over the years, based on our shifting needs and values, we have harnessed their power with waterwheels and dams, straightened them for ships, drained them with irrigation canals, set them on fire, and even attempted to restore them. In this fresh and powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the U.S. Constitution's roots in interstate river navigation, the origins of the Army Corps of Engineers, the discovery of gold in 1848, and the construction of the Hoover Dam and the TVA during the New Deal, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina and the water wars in the west. Along the way, he explores how rivers have often been the source of arguments at the heart of the American experiment--over federalism, sovereignty and property rights, taxation, regulation, conservation, and development. Through his encounters with experts all over the country--a Mississippi River tugboat captain, an Erie Canal lock operator, a dendrochronologist who can predict the future based on the story trees tell about the past, a western rancher fighting for water rights--Doyle reveals the central role rivers have played in American history--and how vital they are to its future."--Jacket.
Subject Rivers -- United States -- History.
Water resources development -- United States -- History.
Floodplain management -- United States -- History.
Water conservation -- United States -- History.
Stream ecology -- United States -- History.
Human ecology -- United States -- History.
HISTORY -- United States.
NATURE -- Ecosystems & Habitats -- Rivers.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- American Government.
TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING -- Civil -- Dams & Reservoirs.
Floodplain management. (OCoLC)fst00927547
Human ecology. (OCoLC)fst00962941
Rivers. (OCoLC)fst01098312
Stream ecology. (OCoLC)fst01134567
Water conservation. (OCoLC)fst01171608
Water resources development. (OCoLC)fst01171955
United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
Water conservation -- United States -- History.
Water resources development -- United States -- History.
Rivers -- United States -- History.
Genre/Form History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
Added Title How rivers made America and America remade its rivers
ISBN 9780393242355 (hardcover)
0393242358 (hardcover)
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