Anthony R. Palumbi

The book is only partially about dams. The author wanders around a lot, taking the reader to New York City and New Orleans, punctuated by a lot of multi-page political rants. I found myself wondering what the purpose of the book actually was. Given the lack of consistent attention to the title topic, and the overt poliiticizing (I avoid both Fox and MSNBC) I struggled to retain interest. After 2 months I finally reached the end, where the author explains "we must model our future on the show more widely distributed prosperity of the New Deal era". He follows this with a tortured and misleading discussion of what 'infrastructure' consists of, points out that planning "infrastructure and industrial policy for the next few decades seems like a daunting work, but thankfully most of the intellectual lifting has already been done by left-leaning thinktanks and Congressional staffers." Mystery solved.

He as much as admits that he chose 'dams' as the topic because it was representative of his greater political goal involving his extremely broad understanding of 'infrastructure' and the need for government to provide it. This is an awkward conclusion, given that so much of the book is devoted to the poor choices and unsustainable results of many of the major projects undertaken by the Corps of Engineer and Bureau of Reclamation. . show less

One of the most disappointing book purchases I have ever made. About 1/3 is about dam building and the rest is treatise on why the US is and has been horrible. Loose with facts and as a result cannot be trusted. Poorly written and weakly constructed .