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Unreal City: Las Vegas, Black Mesa, and the Fate of the West by Nies, Judith (2014) Hardcover
An epic struggle over land, water, and power is erupting in the American West and the halls of Washington, DC. It began when a 4,000-square-mile area of Arizona desert called Black Mesa was divided between the Hopi and Navajo tribes. To the outside world, it was a land struggle between two fractious Indian tribes; to political insiders and energy corporations, it was a divide-and-conquer play for the 21 billion tons of coal beneath Black Mesa. Today, that coal powers cheap electricity for Los Angeles, a new water aqueduct into Phoenix, and the neon dazzle of Las Vegas.
Journalist and historian Judith Nies has been tracking this story for nearly four decades. She follows the money and tells us the true story of wealth and water, mendacity, and corruption at the highest levels of business and government. Amid the backdrop of the breathtaking desert landscape, Unreal City shows five cultures colliding -- Hopi, Navajo, global energy corporations, Mormons, and US government agencies -- resulting in a battle over resources and the future of the West.
Las Vegas may attract 39 million visitors a year, but the tourists mesmerized by the dancing water fountains at the Bellagio don't ask where the water comes from. They don't see a city with the nation's highest rates of foreclosure, unemployment, and suicide. They don't see the astonishing drop in the water level of Lake Mead -- where Sin City gets 90 percent of its water supply.
Nies shows how the struggle over Black Mesa lands is an example of a global phenomenon in which giant transnational corporations have the power to separate indigenous people from their energy-rich lands with the help of host governments. Unreal City explores how and why resources have been taken from native lands, what it means in an era of climate change, and why, in this city divorced from nature, the only thing more powerful than money is water.
Journalist and historian Judith Nies has been tracking this story for nearly four decades. She follows the money and tells us the true story of wealth and water, mendacity, and corruption at the highest levels of business and government. Amid the backdrop of the breathtaking desert landscape, Unreal City shows five cultures colliding -- Hopi, Navajo, global energy corporations, Mormons, and US government agencies -- resulting in a battle over resources and the future of the West.
Las Vegas may attract 39 million visitors a year, but the tourists mesmerized by the dancing water fountains at the Bellagio don't ask where the water comes from. They don't see a city with the nation's highest rates of foreclosure, unemployment, and suicide. They don't see the astonishing drop in the water level of Lake Mead -- where Sin City gets 90 percent of its water supply.
Nies shows how the struggle over Black Mesa lands is an example of a global phenomenon in which giant transnational corporations have the power to separate indigenous people from their energy-rich lands with the help of host governments. Unreal City explores how and why resources have been taken from native lands, what it means in an era of climate change, and why, in this city divorced from nature, the only thing more powerful than money is water.
Hardcover
First published March 1, 2014
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493 people want to read
About the author
Judith Nies
9 books5 followersJudith Nies is the award-winning author of three nonfiction books—The Girl I Left Behind, Nine Women, and Native American History, which won the Phi Alpha Theta prize in international history. Her journalism, book reviews, and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Orion, Harvard Review, Women’s Review of Books, and American Voice. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
November 17, 2021
A tale of two books, in effect. This book was so good for the first two sections when it concentrated on a lot of history and set forth a lot of facts with regard to the Navajo/Hopi reservations, politicians, Mormons, mineral rights, along with the need for water and electricity in Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Then, the author takes a hard turn and gets into Bechtel Corporation, US Military and Indian rights that are not related to her main premise of the book.
The book does make you think about things, and even though the author is definitely pro-Navajo, there is so much history that she brings into this tale that you just shake your head at all the deals and “legal” maneuvering that went on in order to get their rights to coal and water in order for development throughout the Southwest. And once those rights were obtained they then moved onto Uranium which was needed for out Atomic Energy and Weapons programs.
As, I said, this book was highly enjoyable and thought provoking for the first 2 sections, but the overall rating is brought down by a preachy and overreaching last third of the book.
The book does make you think about things, and even though the author is definitely pro-Navajo, there is so much history that she brings into this tale that you just shake your head at all the deals and “legal” maneuvering that went on in order to get their rights to coal and water in order for development throughout the Southwest. And once those rights were obtained they then moved onto Uranium which was needed for out Atomic Energy and Weapons programs.
As, I said, this book was highly enjoyable and thought provoking for the first 2 sections, but the overall rating is brought down by a preachy and overreaching last third of the book.
December 15, 2014
I realize I'm going against the trend here. But I didn't like the book.
For starters, while it is obvious that Nies has done a lot of research, she needed much better proofreading and fact checking before publication. That's more a comment about her publisher than her, but it does detract from the book and cause me to wonder how many other errors I didn't catch.
I agree with most of the premises in the book, and share the concerns expressed. My biggest complaint is that Nies sounds like what she is; an outsider trying to analyze western issues. Having lived my entire adult life in the American West (by choice), I find it a stunningly wondrous place. The landscape is unmatched, the space is open, and the culture still better reflects discrete raw materials than a melting pot. And as with everywhere that humans congregate, there are all the typical human problems. But those problems are unique in the American West, given the singular landscape and collective culture. And they are not easily understood from a library east of the Mississippi, or through the windshield of a rented hybrid car traveling on paved roads.
I agree that the native inhabitants have been mistreated. i agree that money has brought out the worst in people. I agree that politicians, corporations, and ambitious self-interested people have conspired to defraud and rob. I agree that what is valuable in the west isn't the land so much as what lies under it, namely water and minerals. I wanted to like this book. But I couldn't get past the author's obvious lack of context in discussing these issues. I'm sure she has visited the west (she certainly did enough name dropping throughout the book). But she doesn't get it.
If she really wanted to write a book about corruption, she lives right next to Boston for hell's sake. If she wrote a book about how corporations, politicians, labor unions, and other special interests turned a little subway project into a multi-billion dollar hole in the ground I'll read it. There is nothing happening out here that isn't going on in her back yard, or anywhere else. She should stick with what she understands.
For starters, while it is obvious that Nies has done a lot of research, she needed much better proofreading and fact checking before publication. That's more a comment about her publisher than her, but it does detract from the book and cause me to wonder how many other errors I didn't catch.
I agree with most of the premises in the book, and share the concerns expressed. My biggest complaint is that Nies sounds like what she is; an outsider trying to analyze western issues. Having lived my entire adult life in the American West (by choice), I find it a stunningly wondrous place. The landscape is unmatched, the space is open, and the culture still better reflects discrete raw materials than a melting pot. And as with everywhere that humans congregate, there are all the typical human problems. But those problems are unique in the American West, given the singular landscape and collective culture. And they are not easily understood from a library east of the Mississippi, or through the windshield of a rented hybrid car traveling on paved roads.
I agree that the native inhabitants have been mistreated. i agree that money has brought out the worst in people. I agree that politicians, corporations, and ambitious self-interested people have conspired to defraud and rob. I agree that what is valuable in the west isn't the land so much as what lies under it, namely water and minerals. I wanted to like this book. But I couldn't get past the author's obvious lack of context in discussing these issues. I'm sure she has visited the west (she certainly did enough name dropping throughout the book). But she doesn't get it.
If she really wanted to write a book about corruption, she lives right next to Boston for hell's sake. If she wrote a book about how corporations, politicians, labor unions, and other special interests turned a little subway project into a multi-billion dollar hole in the ground I'll read it. There is nothing happening out here that isn't going on in her back yard, or anywhere else. She should stick with what she understands.
June 17, 2018
So many inaccurate things in this, it's hard to believe any of her research. Maddening in the repetition...
May 5, 2014
Indians having land stolen from them for mineral rights just don't sound right. Actually this type of systematic rape has gone on for years. Oh and by the way, Vegas is the asshole of the world. Summed up that book quick enough. I love it when someone has the brass nuts to expose the corruption that sits right in front of those who refuse to acknowledge it. A very thoroughly researched book that does have a tendency to skip around quite a bit can be a bit annoying. However the author does get the point across and should be read by those interested in what a pleasure living in a desert can be.
April 25, 2015
I give it 5-stars, even though it repeats things now and then, and presents technology and climate change with an anti-technology bias from the 1970s. There is no quantifiable link between CO2 and the warming of the climate. Coal mining and dams are the price of large populations with advanced economies and high living standards. The companies like Bechtel and Morrison Knutson are not evil because they provide those things, or because they take government contracts to build projects that benefit huge population centers in the Southwest.
What is wrong about the behavior of the people and companies described is how the Indians were robbed and had their homes and livelihoods stolen. What was done to the American Indian was genocide and concentration camps, far worse than slavery to African Americans. This book is very accurate in what it presents of that history.
As someone who comes from Nevada and has lived in Las Vegas and worked at the Nevada test Site, the Nevada history was fun to read and accurate. It was everything I knew and it was nice to see an accurate presentation of it all together. This also extends to the story of the Mormon influence, and the Western water and energy wars. All of it was very well researched and well written – and very accurate from someone who grew up with it and watched much of what is in the book first hand with family that worked in the gaming industry since the 1940s. It tells an unvarnished story of the special corruption and influence peddling that Nevada and the Southwest have at their core. But then every industry is the same, as is every place, as it how every one of them did similar things to the Indians in their regions.
I would have liked to see a less biased and one-sided view of technology and climate change, but that is forgiven given the overall quality of the story in the book.
July 1, 2020
This book came in my 6 books for $30 from Daedalus but it really was a book worth paying full price. It is a history of Las Vegas but more than that it is an expose of the Southwest and in particular the treatment of the Indians (Hopi-Navajo) and the land itself. In many ways it is a really sad book. The US has just recently come face-to-face with BlackLivesMatter in a way that we can't ignore any more. But the treatment of the Native people and other immigrants is being left unsaid or is only a quiet voice in the background. Perhaps because the subject is too big and too awful to accept by people who are used to being at the top and have taken whatever we wanted no matter what the cost for centuries.
My father loved the Southwest and did become a Snowbird in his later years. I found the desert fascinating but not a place I wanted to live and only to visit in the winter months. But my father was like so many westerners seeking to escape from the life they led "back East". Wallace Stegner in his novels that are not as well read as maybe they should be tells the tales of these Easterners who came West for fortune and escape. My father has been gone 10 years so I can't suggest he read this book or discuss what he knew of the place he called his second home. I imagine that like most of the other people who live there he never asked what came before or how it is possible to live in a desert.
But Nies tells us a lot in this book about how it all came to be and the crooks and rogues and politicians who came to make their own fortunes at whatever cost. What we are taught as engineering marvels were done at great cost to the government and great profit to the private companies. The people who built those dams, mined the coal and other resources were essentially worker slaves and many died in the process. We have had inklings in the past 40 years of the treatment of the Indians but their story was never told to earlier generations. Even the idea of what was happening to the earth as we bulldozed it under and polluted its air was just sort of ignored in our pursuit of wealth.
"Las Vegas is a city divorced from nature--and proud of it. Located in the middle of the Mohave Desert, it gets 4 inches of rain a year and has a climate like Baghdad. Las Vegas is like putting a man on the moon. It has no water. Nothing grows here. And half the year it is over 100 degrees. As an international destination with 39 million visitors a year and 14 of the largest hotels in the world, the city attracts more tourists than all of Great Britain."
"There is some irony that the premier city in a state famous for its no-tax, small government, hyperconservative political culture exists within an economy that is buoyed by billions of dollars from the federal budget, spent by personnel from many government agencies."
"Las Vegas is a city designed to alter perceptions: gambling substitutes for income, night is interchangeable with day, the scale of excess denies the idea of limits. Residents do not seem curious where they get their electricity or water or the political entities that control their infrastructure. Or who pays for it. Las Vegas history is framed in the present tense."
Water the biggest issue in the West. The issue that nobody who lives here really wants to confront. Nies tells us about the Ice Age aquifers under the desert that are being emptied to provide the power to "pump water into Phoenix, air-conditioning to Los Angeles and the electricity to light the giant casinos and cool thousands of new homes in Las Vegas as the population doubled and then tripled every year."
Coal provides that power. "In 2014 America still gets 40% of its electricity from coal. In the arid cities of the West electricity is doing more than running air conditioners and computers. It is pumping water." Coal-slurry whereby the giant coal fields under the Black Mesa after being strip mined were sent via pipeline using billions of gallons of water hundreds of miles away to run power stations. "Many experts consider CLEAN COAL an oxymoron and the insistence on its viability raises ongoing questions about the true costs of sustaining unsustainable cities within the global phenomenon of climate change."
This book is dedicated to Roberta Blackgoat, a Navajo activist whose story was told on the international stage but unheard in the US. Except for a short time in 1969 when activists calling themselves All Tribes took over Alcatraz island in San Francisco Bay and held the island until June 1971 that the Indian story made headlines. It came on the heels of the 60's civil rights and women's rights battles and would lead to the creation of separate history classes for African-Americans, women and Native Americans. It was an attempt to tell this backstory history of the US.
It has been 50 years and a new generation looking to survive in the shambles of the economy, climate change deadlines and the social chaos of polarization are trampling the symbols of that past that brought us to this present.
"Meyer Lansky used to say there is no such thing as a lucky gambler. The only winner was the house. In this case, the house is nature. We're in the climate casino now. Who will win? Who will pay?"
My father loved the Southwest and did become a Snowbird in his later years. I found the desert fascinating but not a place I wanted to live and only to visit in the winter months. But my father was like so many westerners seeking to escape from the life they led "back East". Wallace Stegner in his novels that are not as well read as maybe they should be tells the tales of these Easterners who came West for fortune and escape. My father has been gone 10 years so I can't suggest he read this book or discuss what he knew of the place he called his second home. I imagine that like most of the other people who live there he never asked what came before or how it is possible to live in a desert.
But Nies tells us a lot in this book about how it all came to be and the crooks and rogues and politicians who came to make their own fortunes at whatever cost. What we are taught as engineering marvels were done at great cost to the government and great profit to the private companies. The people who built those dams, mined the coal and other resources were essentially worker slaves and many died in the process. We have had inklings in the past 40 years of the treatment of the Indians but their story was never told to earlier generations. Even the idea of what was happening to the earth as we bulldozed it under and polluted its air was just sort of ignored in our pursuit of wealth.
"Las Vegas is a city divorced from nature--and proud of it. Located in the middle of the Mohave Desert, it gets 4 inches of rain a year and has a climate like Baghdad. Las Vegas is like putting a man on the moon. It has no water. Nothing grows here. And half the year it is over 100 degrees. As an international destination with 39 million visitors a year and 14 of the largest hotels in the world, the city attracts more tourists than all of Great Britain."
"There is some irony that the premier city in a state famous for its no-tax, small government, hyperconservative political culture exists within an economy that is buoyed by billions of dollars from the federal budget, spent by personnel from many government agencies."
"Las Vegas is a city designed to alter perceptions: gambling substitutes for income, night is interchangeable with day, the scale of excess denies the idea of limits. Residents do not seem curious where they get their electricity or water or the political entities that control their infrastructure. Or who pays for it. Las Vegas history is framed in the present tense."
Water the biggest issue in the West. The issue that nobody who lives here really wants to confront. Nies tells us about the Ice Age aquifers under the desert that are being emptied to provide the power to "pump water into Phoenix, air-conditioning to Los Angeles and the electricity to light the giant casinos and cool thousands of new homes in Las Vegas as the population doubled and then tripled every year."
Coal provides that power. "In 2014 America still gets 40% of its electricity from coal. In the arid cities of the West electricity is doing more than running air conditioners and computers. It is pumping water." Coal-slurry whereby the giant coal fields under the Black Mesa after being strip mined were sent via pipeline using billions of gallons of water hundreds of miles away to run power stations. "Many experts consider CLEAN COAL an oxymoron and the insistence on its viability raises ongoing questions about the true costs of sustaining unsustainable cities within the global phenomenon of climate change."
This book is dedicated to Roberta Blackgoat, a Navajo activist whose story was told on the international stage but unheard in the US. Except for a short time in 1969 when activists calling themselves All Tribes took over Alcatraz island in San Francisco Bay and held the island until June 1971 that the Indian story made headlines. It came on the heels of the 60's civil rights and women's rights battles and would lead to the creation of separate history classes for African-Americans, women and Native Americans. It was an attempt to tell this backstory history of the US.
It has been 50 years and a new generation looking to survive in the shambles of the economy, climate change deadlines and the social chaos of polarization are trampling the symbols of that past that brought us to this present.
"Meyer Lansky used to say there is no such thing as a lucky gambler. The only winner was the house. In this case, the house is nature. We're in the climate casino now. Who will win? Who will pay?"
October 7, 2014
One day, the author will get over hating and stereotyping everyone who chooses to live in the West, revise this book and remove her truckload of personal biases, and have a very good and topical book folks can read without tripping over the baggage.
January 15, 2018
Roberta Blackgoat, recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Rights Award, was a sheep herder and mother living in the remote high-elevation interior of the Navajo Nation in the late 1960s. She brought to the world's attention the government's forced relocation of her and many others for strip mine on Black Mesa. When US Marshalls came for her, she wore a sign "The Creator Is the Only One Who is Going to Relocate Us." This is a story of businessmen, lawyers, and government officials turning that coal into electricity to power the great cities of the West.
Today, the recipients of Black Mesa coal are scheduled to close by 2020 (Navajo Generation Station) or are dismantled (Mojave Generating Station). The powerful forces the shook Blackgoat's former door have moved onto the next big thing.
Today, the recipients of Black Mesa coal are scheduled to close by 2020 (Navajo Generation Station) or are dismantled (Mojave Generating Station). The powerful forces the shook Blackgoat's former door have moved onto the next big thing.
March 27, 2022
On page 4, Judith Nies writes “Las Vegas has no real downtown, no civic spaces, no historic buildings, no public parks, and no commemorative plaques—no public history.”
I’m used to people being wrong about Vegas, but for something to be so flagrantly inaccurate to appear on page 4, I had to put the book down. Downtown LV, Springs Preserve (2007), the Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse (1933, National Historic Register, now houses the Mob Museum), the not one, not two, but seventy freaking five (75!!!) public parks in the care of the City of Las Vegas all beg to differ, Judith.
I’ll concede that Vegas doesn’t necessarily prioritize public history, but to say there’s nothing is brazenly ignorant and does not assure me as a reader that the rest of this "non-fiction" book is in any way factual or well-researched.
I’m used to people being wrong about Vegas, but for something to be so flagrantly inaccurate to appear on page 4, I had to put the book down. Downtown LV, Springs Preserve (2007), the Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse (1933, National Historic Register, now houses the Mob Museum), the not one, not two, but seventy freaking five (75!!!) public parks in the care of the City of Las Vegas all beg to differ, Judith.
I’ll concede that Vegas doesn’t necessarily prioritize public history, but to say there’s nothing is brazenly ignorant and does not assure me as a reader that the rest of this "non-fiction" book is in any way factual or well-researched.
March 24, 2024
Well researched book about Black Mesa
I want really sure what this book was going to be about but it really gave an eye opening look at how corruption and greed has changed the face of America. I went to Las Vegas once and the best day of my trip was went I went hiking through the ring of fire canyon for the day. I found Las Vegas to be a fake place and its such a shame that many of my friend love going there to enjoy the lights and the gambling. But at what cost. Every person that revels in that fakeness is contributing to the devastation that is closed over, except for books like this that strip away the gloss to root out the rot. As humans we need to start living sustainably instead of greedily. An excellent book, thank you.
I want really sure what this book was going to be about but it really gave an eye opening look at how corruption and greed has changed the face of America. I went to Las Vegas once and the best day of my trip was went I went hiking through the ring of fire canyon for the day. I found Las Vegas to be a fake place and its such a shame that many of my friend love going there to enjoy the lights and the gambling. But at what cost. Every person that revels in that fakeness is contributing to the devastation that is closed over, except for books like this that strip away the gloss to root out the rot. As humans we need to start living sustainably instead of greedily. An excellent book, thank you.
February 16, 2018
Well Researched
I choose four stars because at some points the author tended to ramble, but I learned so much I couldn't possibly give it less. Very informative, touching on history, geography, politics, culture, you name it. As a result of reading this book I am more concerned than ever about the state of denial,disrespect & greed we Americans live in.
I choose four stars because at some points the author tended to ramble, but I learned so much I couldn't possibly give it less. Very informative, touching on history, geography, politics, culture, you name it. As a result of reading this book I am more concerned than ever about the state of denial,disrespect & greed we Americans live in.
June 1, 2018
Interesting but boring
The history and connections between the destruction of the environmental and subjugation of native peoples, and big business and politics are fascinating and things everyone should know. Unfortunately the author is a little too excited about his connections and goes off on some long tangents. It also is rather repetitive.
The history and connections between the destruction of the environmental and subjugation of native peoples, and big business and politics are fascinating and things everyone should know. Unfortunately the author is a little too excited about his connections and goes off on some long tangents. It also is rather repetitive.
August 31, 2019
Sad read about the state of the american west in general and Las Vegas. This book has really made me think if it is really worth it traveling to Las Vegas and using up all those resources
June 24, 2015
In a well-connected and terrifically-told story, the author lays it out there for anyone to understand: The whole Las Vegas, Phoenix, LA thing is built on the notion that water and electricity follow money. She follows the money well, explaining the historical and societal impacts of two centuries of efforts to turn Las Vegas into a cash cow -- for who? For those who know how to milk cash cows, that's who. It's really a story about the whole Southwest, with the focal point of Las Vegas tied in with the modern mistreatment of the Natives.
The Mob. Del Webb. Barry Goldwater. Brigham Young. Bechtel Corporation (read: Hoover Dam). Yeah... those guys, who turned the desert into Fantasyland. The problem, of course, is that at some point pretty soon, we're going to find ourselves in Tomrrowland, and things will not be so luxurious in the desert.
The casinos, the golf courses, the tax breaks, the giant public works projects ... they all depend on unlimited water and unlimited electricity, and the two go hand in hand. Nies does a marvelous job of researching and telling the story without trying to hide her perspective -- this whole city and how it got to be built, where it is built, and why it is still growing, is just plain ridiculous. She also does a nice job of showing how big business and government in the past 40 years have continued the work of the U.S. Cavalry of the late 19th century.
Some 25 years ago, on a cross-country flight I sat next to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who was nice enough to put up with me for a few minutes. He was reading a book about western water rights and told me, "Water is going to be what changes everything. There's not enough of it where the population is growing, so things are eventually going to have to change." That was 15 years before anybody ever brought up climate change ... he was just stating the obvious. This book is about that painfully obvious fact, and how it got to be this way as we enter the Era of Limits.
The Mob. Del Webb. Barry Goldwater. Brigham Young. Bechtel Corporation (read: Hoover Dam). Yeah... those guys, who turned the desert into Fantasyland. The problem, of course, is that at some point pretty soon, we're going to find ourselves in Tomrrowland, and things will not be so luxurious in the desert.
The casinos, the golf courses, the tax breaks, the giant public works projects ... they all depend on unlimited water and unlimited electricity, and the two go hand in hand. Nies does a marvelous job of researching and telling the story without trying to hide her perspective -- this whole city and how it got to be built, where it is built, and why it is still growing, is just plain ridiculous. She also does a nice job of showing how big business and government in the past 40 years have continued the work of the U.S. Cavalry of the late 19th century.
Some 25 years ago, on a cross-country flight I sat next to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who was nice enough to put up with me for a few minutes. He was reading a book about western water rights and told me, "Water is going to be what changes everything. There's not enough of it where the population is growing, so things are eventually going to have to change." That was 15 years before anybody ever brought up climate change ... he was just stating the obvious. This book is about that painfully obvious fact, and how it got to be this way as we enter the Era of Limits.
March 19, 2016
"Unreal City: Las Vegas, Black Mesa, and the Fate of the West" (2014) by Judith Nies is long, disorganized, and at times repetitive, but it contains invaluable chunks of information about the continued dispossession of Native Americans in this country and the way fossil fuel companies and other corporations dominate national and global decisions about energy use. That corporate domination of the energy discussion is, of course, keeping us on track for catastrophic global warming, an issue that should be uppermost in our minds, with the upcoming climate change talks in Paris.
One of the book’s many bottom lines is that Western cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, are as unsustainable in terms of their water and electricity use as coastal cities, properties, and small island countries have become in an age of global climate change (think of New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy). They have been for years, and the only way they’ve become as big as they are is that the corporate-dominated media have allowed us to view them instead as part of the American Dream, our collective “success story.” This is one of the chapters in the business-as-usual, we-can-keep-our-“lifestyle” story profitable corporations and the government representatives who come from and go back to them have been pushing on us, blinding us to the true costs to ourselves, to indigenous and other peoples, and to the earth on which we depend for life.
To read my notes on the book, go to www.wegotthenumbers.org.
One of the book’s many bottom lines is that Western cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, are as unsustainable in terms of their water and electricity use as coastal cities, properties, and small island countries have become in an age of global climate change (think of New Orleans and Hurricane Sandy). They have been for years, and the only way they’ve become as big as they are is that the corporate-dominated media have allowed us to view them instead as part of the American Dream, our collective “success story.” This is one of the chapters in the business-as-usual, we-can-keep-our-“lifestyle” story profitable corporations and the government representatives who come from and go back to them have been pushing on us, blinding us to the true costs to ourselves, to indigenous and other peoples, and to the earth on which we depend for life.
To read my notes on the book, go to www.wegotthenumbers.org.
June 11, 2014
An incredibly well researched piece of journalism that shines a spotlight on political corruption and corporate abuses surrounding the "legal" theft of coal and water resources in the Navajo Nation. Money, greed and the lust for cheap water and power to fuel the growth of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Los Angeles loom large in this blood boiling expose, as does the continued injustice heaped upon Native Americans wherever there's a dollar to be made by the corpocracy.
As the water levels in Lake Mead, the Colorado River, and Owens Valley continue to drop and the pace of "desertification" increases, an understanding of how any why this is occurring makes this must reading. The nearing disasters of water depletion, environmental degradation, and climate change are realities that must be acknowledged and I applaud Ms. Nies for the years she dedicated to compiling the chilling facts that fill these pages.
As the water levels in Lake Mead, the Colorado River, and Owens Valley continue to drop and the pace of "desertification" increases, an understanding of how any why this is occurring makes this must reading. The nearing disasters of water depletion, environmental degradation, and climate change are realities that must be acknowledged and I applaud Ms. Nies for the years she dedicated to compiling the chilling facts that fill these pages.
May 20, 2015
Very, very interesting and disturbing book. Covers the history of Las Vegas, along with a partial history of Native Americans (Hopis and Navjos) and the incredible horror story of the way they have been treated and robbed of their land. Plus- an environmental history- how coal mining has impacted the delicate desert environment and how development like that seen in Las Vegas and the pollution from mining has created a "desertification" effect. In sum, the Southwest is running out id water due to development and exploitation. It isn't pretty and it is pretty scary. One annoyance- how much the author repeats statements and facts throughout the book. Surely an editor could have dealt with that...
August 4, 2014
Started off strong but the authors bias against Mormons side-tracked my attention. Comments about Mormonism was poorly researched which then increased my doubt about the rest of Nies' research.
The title suggests a history of Las Vegas, but is more regional than the title suggests. The relation between the Navajo(Dine), Hopi and Las Vegas is not as tight as the book argues-though the tie between Las Vegas and Mormonism is interwoven and investigated little. Unfortunately, this relationship is one-dimensional in this book. The criticism of the relationship are valid but more nuanced than Nies articulates.
The title suggests a history of Las Vegas, but is more regional than the title suggests. The relation between the Navajo(Dine), Hopi and Las Vegas is not as tight as the book argues-though the tie between Las Vegas and Mormonism is interwoven and investigated little. Unfortunately, this relationship is one-dimensional in this book. The criticism of the relationship are valid but more nuanced than Nies articulates.
April 20, 2015
The history in this book was fascinating to read. My biggest complaint is that the Kindle version did not have links to the footnotes that were listed at the end of the book. The author cites a lot of numbers, dates, and details and I wanted to know what her sources were, but the lack of footnote links made verifying these details very difficult. Also, the author makes some mistakes in the first third of the book when talking about Las Vegas. For instance, she says at one point that there are no parks, which I believe is inaccurate. She also mentions Las Vegas in the same way she mentions Arizona and California, as if Las Vegas were a state and not just a city in Nevada.
June 13, 2014
This book covers a lot of territory: water rights in the southwest, the theft of mineral rights from Native Americans and their forced relocation, the unsustainable growth of Las Vegas, corruption at high levels of American government, and more. It is well-researched, but put together very poorly. There doesn't seem to be much of an order, the narrative just jumps around from place to place, time to time. It's very confusing and distracting.
November 13, 2015
Interesting story about Black Mesa and how Native Americans are once more being exploited and moved off their lands for water and mineral rights by big corporations in order to keep cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix in water and electricity. I would've given it 4 stars but the book is a little unorganized. The author jumps around a lot and often repeats information, but it's definitely worth reading.
February 24, 2015
This ended up being really interesting, but also mind-numbingly boring at times. It wasn't very focused; the stroll through the history of the Bechtel corporation in the west, while possibly quite important, was horribly, horribly uninteresting to read about. The water policy stuff, on the other hand, was much more interesting, although alarming as hell.
July 1, 2015
Argh. This book was an interesting ready but quite depressing content. First it covers our nation's continued theft from and subjugation of the native people. Then it reviews the folly of building both industry (energy & gambling) and housing in an arid dessert which pinpoints the current water crisis across the southwest. I would highly recommend this book for the lessons learned.
July 9, 2014
Won this book in a Goodreads giveaway.
The topic is incredibly fascinating, but the execution fell flat. I tried to get into the book, but the writing never caught my attention long enough to read more than a page or two at a time.
The topic is incredibly fascinating, but the execution fell flat. I tried to get into the book, but the writing never caught my attention long enough to read more than a page or two at a time.
March 20, 2015
Great reality check!
Thank you Ms. Niles for this thoroughly enlightening book. So much of our history learning is based on government influenced media. This book is refreshing and considerably thought/action provoking. Must read!
Thank you Ms. Niles for this thoroughly enlightening book. So much of our history learning is based on government influenced media. This book is refreshing and considerably thought/action provoking. Must read!
January 20, 2019
The growth of modern-day Las Vegas fueled by Navajo and Hopi coal, uranium, and water.
January 23, 2015
An interesting story, but I feel it covered too many topics with too little precision.
March 31, 2015
A very informative book about the arid southwest,gambling coal and the search for water I.learned much
February 5, 2016
Interesting, if disjointed, account of unscrupulous politicians and corporations taking water/land rights from indigenous native american tribes with the U.S. government looking the other way.
May 14, 2017
This should be a required reading in High School. It was an eye-opener for me.
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