American oasis : finding the future in the cities of the southwest / Kyle Paoletta.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Paoletta, Kyle, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Southwest, New--History.

Indians of North America.

Deserts--Southwest, New.

Deserts.

Frontier and pioneer life.

Climatic changes.

Southwest, New--History.

Southwest, New.

Cities and towns--Southwest, New.

Cities and towns.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 326 pages : maps ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Pantheon Books, 2025.

Summary:

"Albuquerque. 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." -- Provided by publisher.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-307) and index.

ISBN:

9780553387377

0553387375

OCLC:

1430499112