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Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest
In 1940, Phoenix was a small, agricultural city of sixty-five thousand, and the Navajo Reservation was an open landscape of scattered sheepherders. Forty years later, Phoenix had blossomed into a metropolis of 1.5 million people and the territory of the Navajo Nation was home to two of the largest strip mines in the world. Five coal-burning power plants surrounded the reservation, generating electricity for export to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and other cities. Exploring the postwar developments of these two very different landscapes, Power Lines tells the story of the far-reaching environmental and social inequalities of metropolitan growth, and the roots of the contemporary coal-fueled climate change crisis.
Andrew Needham explains how inexpensive electricity became a requirement for modern life in Phoenix--driving assembly lines and cooling the oppressive heat. Navajo officials initially hoped energy development would improve their lands too, but as ash piles marked their landscape, air pollution filled the skies, and almost half of Navajo households remained without electricity, many Navajos came to view power lines as a sign of their subordination in the Southwest. Drawing together urban, environmental, and American Indian history, Needham demonstrates how power lines created unequal connections between distant landscapes and how environmental changes associated with suburbanization reached far beyond the metropolitan frontier. Needham also offers a new account of postwar inequality, arguing that residents of the metropolitan periphery suffered similar patterns of marginalization as those faced in America's inner cities.
Telling how coal from Indian lands became the fuel of modernity in the Southwest, Power Lines explores the dramatic effects that this energy system has had on the people and environment of the region.
Andrew Needham explains how inexpensive electricity became a requirement for modern life in Phoenix--driving assembly lines and cooling the oppressive heat. Navajo officials initially hoped energy development would improve their lands too, but as ash piles marked their landscape, air pollution filled the skies, and almost half of Navajo households remained without electricity, many Navajos came to view power lines as a sign of their subordination in the Southwest. Drawing together urban, environmental, and American Indian history, Needham demonstrates how power lines created unequal connections between distant landscapes and how environmental changes associated with suburbanization reached far beyond the metropolitan frontier. Needham also offers a new account of postwar inequality, arguing that residents of the metropolitan periphery suffered similar patterns of marginalization as those faced in America's inner cities.
Telling how coal from Indian lands became the fuel of modernity in the Southwest, Power Lines explores the dramatic effects that this energy system has had on the people and environment of the region.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2014
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436 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
May 31, 2021
Fascinating look at metropolitan and regional growth and what they mean in the American southwest. The history here roots the story of Phoenix's 20th-century rise in its larger environmental and political ecology. Kicking myself a bit for picking up something this academic (along with some big heavy literary fiction, my timing is truly lousy lately) just as the weather is shifting to porch-drinking reading times, but glad I powered through it.
December 8, 2020
A fascinating energy history of the American Southwest. By employing a regional scope, Needham simultaneously tells the stories of both the urban and rural. As Phoenix burgeons into a consumerist, mostly-caucasian sprawl during the postwar era, utility companies struggle to keep up with rising electricity demand. They look several hundred miles north, to Navajo Nation's coal deposits. The leaders of Navajo Nation, not so unlike the businessmen and boosters of Phoenix, aspire for electrified modernity and prosperity amidst the desert. However, mid-1900's government policies towards Native Americans ensure that Navajo Nation bears the environmental costs of energy development on their land, while not reaping much of the material gain. Through this story, Needham saliently illustrates the painful consequences of metropolitan growth politics and oblivious energy consumption. Progress for some does not come without cost to others, and in the context of an increasingly unhealthy planet, these costs can no longer be ignored.
October 16, 2018
Not a book I would have chosen to read, but that's grad school. However, this was mostly a compelling story about both the growth of postwar Phoenix and how it branded and powered itself and the Navajo people who lived there. The U.S. government, to hopefully no one's surprise, treated the Navajo horribly, ripped them off financially by killing their stock or excluding them from lucrative energy deals, and a bunch more you'll have to read to find out. While some sections dragged on, I was most interested in the metaphorical power lines between the Navajo and white people who wanted to settle the Southwest postwar. I learned a lot but unless you're a die-hard historian, fan of the Southwest, Navajo scholar, or energy development enthusiast, this book is probably not for you.
April 22, 2024
Overall good book. Had personal qualms with the book and hard to follow in certain places based on thematic approaches versus chronological.
November 28, 2021
Pulls back the curtain on easily the most taken for granted element of post-WWII metropolitan (urban and suburban) development: electricity. Really important work, but I got lost in the political fray that Needham narrates. So I'll also take away from this that understanding why our world is the way it is unfortunately requires entering a bewildering maze of bureaucratic decision-making and public-private partnerships that defy easy categories. The bureaucratization of state power in modernity being part of its power, and of its ability to make change difficult, etc.
November 17, 2025
This was the first environmental history book I had ever read and was introduced to the book during my M.A. in Modern World History. It opened my eyes to the intersectionality of indigenous history, environmental history, and urban history as it relates to the urbanization of the American Southwest. Increased demand for electricity as the post war urbanization of the American desert region saw the displacement and destruction of indigenous communities and their lands, and the erection of power lines, not only as symbol of "progress" and "modernity," but also as physical barriers drawing lines across the sands of the Mojave that relegated indigenous peoples to increasingly polluted areas as a result of the constant demand to mine and burn coal for energy, and the far off metropolitan utopia that emerged, Phoenix.
I led a course discussion on this book and have included my questions, talking points, observations, and marked pages that highlight or emphasize elements of Andrew Needham's argument for anyone who may be interested below!
-------------------------------------------------
In many of the other books I have read on this subject, there was a spatial element to the history being told, such as frontier lands versus city life in the "Education of Jane Addams," the emergence of suburbs in Glotzer’s "How the Suburbs Were Segregated," and, to an extent, "Cauldron of Resistance," as I sought to define the bounds of national security and the various political actors that exercised considerable agency within Vietnam.
In the context of an environmental history, what are the effects of power lines beyond their intended purpose? How is their placement a creation of a physical boundary? A symbolic boundary? How do you perceive the development of what is now known as the Sun Belt?
How did the placement of power plants serve as a new form of colonization? What were the impacts of power plants on indigenous peoples and what efforts or plans were made to include tribes, such as the Navajo, by giving them “a piece of the action” (Needham 213)?
How was the Navajo nation perceived by its own members and outsiders regarding its immense mineral wealth?
Akin to OPEC on page 213-214
What were the characteristics of early Navajo Nationalism?
How did power plants become one of the cornerstones of Navajo nationalism in the 1960s?
Native lands were being exploited once again to fuel the growth of Western civilization and modern city development in the Southwest
To what extent did the Navajo capitalize on the growth of metropolitan life in the Southwest? What were the nature of the debates regarding power plants and indigenous involvement?
“Moreover, all versions of Navajo nationalism recognized that metropolitan growth depended on the resources located within their land… Navajo nationalism thus attempted to alter the spatial dynamics that subordinated Navajo claims to control their land to metropolitan demands for inexpensive power.” (214)
Needham effectively plays to both sides of the indigenous question, I believe, noting that there is considerable exploitation of their land, but at the same time seemingly cooperative indigenous tribes that realized the influence they had in the region through their control of mineral wealth. Needham cited that many Navajo employees, either in the mines or the power plants themselves, were being paid considerably well compared to the average income in the United States, and these operations had exponentially increased indigenous income per capita as compared to 20 years prior, with many even going on to study at institutions of higher education.
How much agency has Needham placed in the hands of indigenous groups, such as the Navajo, in this environmental history?
How does this narrative subvert our traditional understanding of indigenous relations to the United States? Does it do that? What is Needham’s objective in the telling of this history?
Look at the Fairchild Semiconductor operation on page 216. To what extent did the Navajo Nation enter into the American growth economy? How much political and economic influence did they wield? Do their actions appear to be similar to that of a corporation?
How does Navajo Nationalism change from the 1960s to the 1970s? Whereas some believed mineral wealth to be the key to a Navajo future of financial independence based on American dependency, others perceived the developments taking place as that of a corporate colonization and exploitation of the indigenous population. What some perceived to be Navajos exercising their own agency, some felt as though they were subordinated by Navajo leaders who sold out to metropolitan growth projects. What, then, is the role of sovereignty in environmental history in regard to the indigenous population?
Important tribal policy change on page 245, indicating a significant shift in tribal participation and cooperation with corporate entities.
Navajo Times cited emissions and health concerns as threatening their culture and way of life.
Do you see an argument that outlines the origins of climate change and environmental degradation being made by Needham in this book that links it to the present day?
Look to the conclusion: “That ignorance abetted the practices of utilities that drove electrical demand ever higher, intensifying demand on resources far from the point of consumption. It also created a style of modernity reliant on ready and inexpensive energy, a style that developing nations across the world have aimed to replicate. In an era of unprecedented global climate change, that style, and the ignorance that has accompanied it, must become an artifact of history.” (257)
What are thoughts about this conclusion? Does Needham’s work satisfactorily address climate change throughout the book? Do you think this needs to be more thoroughly developed? Is this an afterthought to make it more relevant for the modern audience or an editor’s note to conclude the book nicely?
I led a course discussion on this book and have included my questions, talking points, observations, and marked pages that highlight or emphasize elements of Andrew Needham's argument for anyone who may be interested below!
-------------------------------------------------
In many of the other books I have read on this subject, there was a spatial element to the history being told, such as frontier lands versus city life in the "Education of Jane Addams," the emergence of suburbs in Glotzer’s "How the Suburbs Were Segregated," and, to an extent, "Cauldron of Resistance," as I sought to define the bounds of national security and the various political actors that exercised considerable agency within Vietnam.
In the context of an environmental history, what are the effects of power lines beyond their intended purpose? How is their placement a creation of a physical boundary? A symbolic boundary? How do you perceive the development of what is now known as the Sun Belt?
How did the placement of power plants serve as a new form of colonization? What were the impacts of power plants on indigenous peoples and what efforts or plans were made to include tribes, such as the Navajo, by giving them “a piece of the action” (Needham 213)?
How was the Navajo nation perceived by its own members and outsiders regarding its immense mineral wealth?
Akin to OPEC on page 213-214
What were the characteristics of early Navajo Nationalism?
How did power plants become one of the cornerstones of Navajo nationalism in the 1960s?
Native lands were being exploited once again to fuel the growth of Western civilization and modern city development in the Southwest
To what extent did the Navajo capitalize on the growth of metropolitan life in the Southwest? What were the nature of the debates regarding power plants and indigenous involvement?
“Moreover, all versions of Navajo nationalism recognized that metropolitan growth depended on the resources located within their land… Navajo nationalism thus attempted to alter the spatial dynamics that subordinated Navajo claims to control their land to metropolitan demands for inexpensive power.” (214)
Needham effectively plays to both sides of the indigenous question, I believe, noting that there is considerable exploitation of their land, but at the same time seemingly cooperative indigenous tribes that realized the influence they had in the region through their control of mineral wealth. Needham cited that many Navajo employees, either in the mines or the power plants themselves, were being paid considerably well compared to the average income in the United States, and these operations had exponentially increased indigenous income per capita as compared to 20 years prior, with many even going on to study at institutions of higher education.
How much agency has Needham placed in the hands of indigenous groups, such as the Navajo, in this environmental history?
How does this narrative subvert our traditional understanding of indigenous relations to the United States? Does it do that? What is Needham’s objective in the telling of this history?
Look at the Fairchild Semiconductor operation on page 216. To what extent did the Navajo Nation enter into the American growth economy? How much political and economic influence did they wield? Do their actions appear to be similar to that of a corporation?
How does Navajo Nationalism change from the 1960s to the 1970s? Whereas some believed mineral wealth to be the key to a Navajo future of financial independence based on American dependency, others perceived the developments taking place as that of a corporate colonization and exploitation of the indigenous population. What some perceived to be Navajos exercising their own agency, some felt as though they were subordinated by Navajo leaders who sold out to metropolitan growth projects. What, then, is the role of sovereignty in environmental history in regard to the indigenous population?
Important tribal policy change on page 245, indicating a significant shift in tribal participation and cooperation with corporate entities.
Navajo Times cited emissions and health concerns as threatening their culture and way of life.
Do you see an argument that outlines the origins of climate change and environmental degradation being made by Needham in this book that links it to the present day?
Look to the conclusion: “That ignorance abetted the practices of utilities that drove electrical demand ever higher, intensifying demand on resources far from the point of consumption. It also created a style of modernity reliant on ready and inexpensive energy, a style that developing nations across the world have aimed to replicate. In an era of unprecedented global climate change, that style, and the ignorance that has accompanied it, must become an artifact of history.” (257)
What are thoughts about this conclusion? Does Needham’s work satisfactorily address climate change throughout the book? Do you think this needs to be more thoroughly developed? Is this an afterthought to make it more relevant for the modern audience or an editor’s note to conclude the book nicely?
October 3, 2016
Power Lines looks at the history of Phoenix as a model of unlimited growth in post-war capitalism, where endless electricity provided by coal and the Hoover Dam fuel the rise of the AC-powered metropolis in the middle of the desert. Needham argues that urban studies should focus on the larger metropolitan region instead of simply "the city", explicitly linking the exploitation of poverty on the Navajo Reservation with the rise of the extremely segregated Phoenix. He divides the book into four parts: the prehistory and natural history of the area before the city, the rise of Phoenix and the demand for electricity in the post-war years, the supply of coal from Navajo country and limits of the hydroelectricity, and finally the pushback against the model of rapid unsustainable growth by both environmentalists and Navajo power activists. Power Lines explicitly links how space and power collide in forming environments in modern cities that probably should not exist.
December 17, 2015
This is an excellent book that will transform how you think about history and, in particular, the 1960s. My full review is here: http://benthamorfoucault.blogspot.com...
October 30, 2021
This was the book of the week for grad school. I am really getting burnt out on reading one book a week. This book was the worst so far this semester. I only like certain parts of this book and will probably never read it again.
This book is about the history of Phoenix, AZ. most of this book deals with how Phoenix was founded and built. It is very detailed with names and dates and figures that gets confusing at times keep everything straight. Along with the shady dealings being done to build businesses and homes in what those in charge are selling as this sort of utopian oasis in the Valley of the Sun for white people you get the story racist mistreatment of the Navajo people, blacks and Mexicans. The title is actually a metaphor for all the different lines of power used build this city. Those lines are businesses, real estate investors, and more.
This book shines when talking about the mistreatment of blacks, Mexicans, and the Native Americans. The last few chapters are also very interesting and great parts of this book that deal with the protest, the Sierra Club and more.
Now the problem I have with this book that made me hate it so much was the use of the word Indians. The author in one sentence calls these people Navajos while in the next referring to them as Indians. For most people this is not a big deal but for me it is a huge deal. I was in the Navy with a guy who was Hopi and I spent a lot of time with him on his reservation which is the same reservation this book talks about. One thing they always talked about was how much they hated the term Indian. They expressed how people have fought so hard for derogatory racist remarks against races in wrong except for Native Americans. It is still perfectly fine to call them that. They hate it and want it to stop. Here you have a very educated man who has a PhD using that term. If I was to use that in a geography paper I would be in so much trouble. Now I as well as the Hopi I talked to understand some things are historical and have the name Indian in them. To this day under the Department of Interior is the Indian Affairs Agency. The Hopi I know look at that word the same as black people look at the N-word. The over use of the word combined with burnout of reading and I was done with this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they were interested in Phoenix, AZ. history or maybe Native American history that deals with the Hopi and Navajo of Northeastern Arizona.
This book is about the history of Phoenix, AZ. most of this book deals with how Phoenix was founded and built. It is very detailed with names and dates and figures that gets confusing at times keep everything straight. Along with the shady dealings being done to build businesses and homes in what those in charge are selling as this sort of utopian oasis in the Valley of the Sun for white people you get the story racist mistreatment of the Navajo people, blacks and Mexicans. The title is actually a metaphor for all the different lines of power used build this city. Those lines are businesses, real estate investors, and more.
This book shines when talking about the mistreatment of blacks, Mexicans, and the Native Americans. The last few chapters are also very interesting and great parts of this book that deal with the protest, the Sierra Club and more.
Now the problem I have with this book that made me hate it so much was the use of the word Indians. The author in one sentence calls these people Navajos while in the next referring to them as Indians. For most people this is not a big deal but for me it is a huge deal. I was in the Navy with a guy who was Hopi and I spent a lot of time with him on his reservation which is the same reservation this book talks about. One thing they always talked about was how much they hated the term Indian. They expressed how people have fought so hard for derogatory racist remarks against races in wrong except for Native Americans. It is still perfectly fine to call them that. They hate it and want it to stop. Here you have a very educated man who has a PhD using that term. If I was to use that in a geography paper I would be in so much trouble. Now I as well as the Hopi I talked to understand some things are historical and have the name Indian in them. To this day under the Department of Interior is the Indian Affairs Agency. The Hopi I know look at that word the same as black people look at the N-word. The over use of the word combined with burnout of reading and I was done with this book. I would not recommend this book to anyone unless they were interested in Phoenix, AZ. history or maybe Native American history that deals with the Hopi and Navajo of Northeastern Arizona.
June 3, 2025
Andrew Needham’s Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest documents the development of Phoenix and the subsequent consequences to the Navajo Nation’s natural resources. While coal extraction from Navajo land fueled city expansion, Navajo people suffered from environmental consequences and lacked meaningful compensation. Needham examines newspapers, archival collections alongside federal and local documents. Power Lines exposes the behind-the scenes dealings in electrifying the Phoenix metro-area. Needham connects the literal and metaphorical powerlines that drive urban development. Power Lines connects Native American energy exploitation and environmental histories to the urban development of the American Southwest. Needham asserts that cities in the American Southwest, particularly Phoenix relied on access to vast energy resources to exist because of the need for air conditioning to combat the desert’s inhospitable heat. The book’s primary contributions surround its strong argument surrounding the role of Native American energy reserves in the development of cities in the United States Southwest.
September 24, 2020
I read this book in its entirety for a sustainable course taken in Arizona. This book was somewhat boring. It is very informative, which I like, but Needham's flow of ideas does not suit what is logical to me. He jumps from 4 different years (not in chronological order) within two paragraphs. If this were written with chapters not only segregated by topics but also written chronologically, this would have been a lot easier for me to follow.
As irritating as it was to read, it was extremely satisfying. I learned so much about my local history that was never taught in public schools. Learning how and where our energy and resources come from is so valuable and makes me appreciate what I have so much more. This should be a required classroom read for all relevant states.
As irritating as it was to read, it was extremely satisfying. I learned so much about my local history that was never taught in public schools. Learning how and where our energy and resources come from is so valuable and makes me appreciate what I have so much more. This should be a required classroom read for all relevant states.
July 11, 2017
Los Angeles bought most of Hoover Dam's power, so Phoenix sought its own big federal power supply. However, in addition to getting power from Glen Canyon Dam, water from the Colorado River, and federally insured mortgages, Phoenix also ended up buying power from a lot of new coal-fired plants distantly located on or near the Navajo Nation. How do you think the economical benefits and environmental impacts were distributed?
September 13, 2021
I don't know a lot about the Southwest so was very interested in this book's central theme (that the SW was the one part of the US that was built on electricity) and the combination of urban, indigenous, and business history of how all of that electricity got produced and linked to the millions of new homes built in the region after WWII. Some of the details of utility company competition is pretty dry but worth the read
April 18, 2019
Certainly this book is informative, but it moves through the content soo slowly. Kudos for sourcing literally everything, but what a slog it was to read this. Topic seemed interesting and I was excited to get into it more.
April 25, 2019
I was assigned to read this book for my American West history class. This book was pretty interesting, but there were a lot of terms and details that honestly I did not really get. Overall for me, it was a little boring, others might think otherwise but it wasn't a favorite read for me.
July 24, 2018
A case study showing how the development of Phoenix was and is dependent on the Navajo Nation for power from coal.
April 16, 2021
Interesting information, very in-depth - written as a microhistory.
April 16, 2022
Read about a quarter of this and skimmed the rest. Written in an academic style that takes way too many words to express even simple points.
December 4, 2023
each sentence is about twice as long as it needs to be
September 17, 2024
3.5 rounded down; interesting but didn’t capture my attention fully
September 28, 2025
Had to call in an expert to understand how electricity works
November 30, 2016
Not my cup of tea, but if you have a burning desire to learn about energy utilities in the Southwest, go for it.
May 16, 2025
Incredibly information packed–incredibly boring.
December 23, 2024
For class, but I really enjoyed it. Now time for presenation and essay
April 6, 2017
Andrew Needham’s work in Power Lines aims to tell a longer and broader history of the development of the energy organization in the southwestern United States. Needham’s work seems to be influenced by Cronon’s work in Nature’s Metropolis. There are clear parallels that can be drawn between the goals of Needham’s work and the new historical analysis presented in Cronon’s work despite the different topics of study. Needham, like Cronon, aims to illustrate the deep connections that exist between the center of major metropolises in the southwestern United States and the hinterlands from which these metropolia’ garner their resources. Needham also seeks to show the deep history that is present in the modern (1960s-1980s) cities in the southwest and the energy systems from which they receive their energy. These lines of work flow clearly from Cronon’s groundbreaking work on western environmental, economic, political, and social history.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews