Western Times and Water Wars: State, Culture, and Rebellion in California

by John H. Walton and John Walton

Book Overview

Western Times and Water Wars chronicles more than a hundred years of tumultuous events in the history of California's Owens Valley. From the pioneer conquest of the native inhabitants to the infamous destruction of the valley's agrarian economy by water-hungry Los Angeles, this legendary setting is a microcosm of the development of the American West.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520072456
• ISBN13: 9780520072459
• Release Date: October 1991
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A little too academic for me.

The author is an historian and proud of it. I was reading this to get a better feel for the history of the "Rape of the Owens Valley" by the L.A. water wizards. I got the history I was looking for, but it was packaged in a form that made it harder to digest. The author was much too concerned with showing off his vocabulary and "dissing" other historians' views. He cleary had his own academic agenda and it got in the way of communicating. Still, the book gave me what I was looking for and it was worth the read.