American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest

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Synopsis
An expansive and revelatory historical exploration of the multicultural, water-seeking, land-destroying settlers of the most arid corner of North America, arguing that in order to know where the United States is going in the era of mass migration and climate crisis we must understand where the Southwest has already beenAlbuquerque. Phoenix. Tucson. El Paso. Las Vegas. Iconic American cities surrounded by desert and rust. Teeming metropolises that seem to exist independently of the seemingly inhospitable and arid landscape that surrounds them, belying the rich insight they offer into American stories of migration, industry, bloodshed, and rebirth.      Charting a geographic path through America's largest and hottest deserts, acclaimed journalist Kyle Paoletta maps the past and future of these cities, and the many other settlements from rural town to urban sprawl that make up the region that has come to be called &“the American Southwest.&” Weaving together the stories of immigrants and indigenous populations, American Oasis pulls back the layers of settlement, sediment, habit, and effect that successive empires have left on the region, from the Athapascan, Diné, Tewa, Apache, and Comanche, to the Spanish, Mexican, and, finally, American.      As Paoletta&’s journey into the Southwest&’s history becomes inextricably linked to an exploration of its dependency on water, he begins to ask: where, ultimately, will cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix find themselves once the Colorado River and its branches dry up? Richly reported and sweeping in its history, American Oasis is the story of what one iconic region&’s past can tell us about our shared environmental and cultural future.
Copyright:
2025

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
Book Size:
352 Pages
ISBN-13:
9780553387384
Related ISBNs:
9780553387377, 9780593947739, 9780593947746
Publisher:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Kyle Paoletta
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Outdoors and Nature, Earth Sciences
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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