Beyond Chinatown: The Metropolitan Water District, Growth, and the Environment in Southern California

by Steven P. Erie

Book Overview

As urban growth outstrips water supplies, how can the global challenge of providing "liquid gold" be met? Mixing history and policy analysis, Steven Erie tells the compelling story of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD)--one of the world's largest and most important public water agencies--and its role in building the world's 8th largest economy in a semi-desert. No tawdry tale of secret backroom conspiracies--as depicted...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804751390
• ISBN13: 9780804751391
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

About Time

It's about time that someone got beyond the misleading notion that water is simply a morality play. The damage done to developing any rational water policy in California by Chinatown, the movie, and Reisner's Cadillac Desert has been enormous. Eire puts the quest for water for Southern California in a historical and policy-making perspective that goes beyond the literary license taken with the facts that have muddied the politics of water in our state. Unfortunately, Eire isn't interested in a good story as Robert Towne and Reisner were and his book won't get the wide reading it deserves.

Water Politics

This is a superb book on the politics of water allocation in the arid southwest. Typical of Professor Erie, the intricacies of allocating this critical resource are analyzed and described in an exceptionally interesting and readable style. A wonderful book.

Southern Californa Water

Erie's book is an entertaining read about the history of the Metropolitan Water District and its role in serving a thirsty Southern California. In California, water and politics have always been inseparable. While Professor Erie's book may rankle some individuals, I found it to be a thoroughly researched and objective book. Certainly not dry reading, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in California water, history, or politics.

Overdue Debunker

Erie is a brilliant, thorough researcher with a track record that supports the believability of his facts and conclusions. He is too gentle on the San Diego schemers he uncovers in "Beyond Chinatown," but he is a scholar first, and an exciting historian.