Books received.

• Position: Review

FROM RECLAMATION TO SUSTAINABILITY: WATER, AGRICULTURE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE AMERICAN WEST

Lawrence J. MacDonnell. University Press of Chicago, 1999. (303) 530-5337. 344 pp. $34.95 Hardbound.

From Reclamation to Sustainability: Water, Agriculture, and the Environment in the American West tells the story of four places in the West where development and use of water, primarily for irrigated agriculture, have been central to economic and social development MacDonnell describes how water has played an essential role in western agriculture, which in turn has been important for the settlement of the West. He goes on to examine the development of western water resources beyond their sustainable capacity, and the consequences of this overdevelopment. The author concludes that the manner in which the West moves toward sustainable use of its limited water resources matters at least as much as achieving sustainable use.

Lawrence J. MacDonnell is a cofounder of Stewardship Initiatives, a nonprofit organization working with community-based conservation partnerships in the West He has worked as a lawyer and a policy consultant on a wide range of environmental and natural resources issues during his career. He was the first director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado School of Law from 1983 to 1994.

DROWNING THE DREAM: CALIFORNIA'S WATER CHOICES AT THE MILLENIUM

David Carle. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. (800) 225-5800. 256 pp. $45.00 Hardbound.

Drowning the Dream: California's Water Choices at the Millennium uses first-person voices of Californians, through oral histories, contemporary newspaper articles, and autobiographies to show the transformation of California's environment and quality of life that came with the importation of water. Carle explores the historic change in California, showing that imported water has shaped the pattern of population growth in the state. He argues that California's damaged environment and reduced quality of life can be corrected if residents will step out of the historic pattern and embrace limited water supplies as a fact of life in this naturally dry region.

David Carle teaches biology at Cerro Coso Community College, Eastern Sierra College Center. He has worked as a state park ranger at Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument and was unit ranger in charge of the State Indian Museum in Sacramento. Since 1982 he has shared the unit ranger position at Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve...