Cadillac Desert posits this about most of the American West, it was sparsely populated prior to the widespread usage of pumps for water and dam program (to generate electricity to pump reservoir water) of Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers. Those power plants and population growths might have fueled American productivity in WW2 but it also was a subsidized consolidation of farms under large corporations and rich individuals when it was meant to help smaller farmers. It's an older book with a 2017 update.
Re:The Last Drops of Mexico City
by WillPostForFood on Thursday March 20, 2025 @04:05PM
(#43428239)
It is a key insight, indirectly. The power of a falsehood to sway emotions on
Re:The Last Drops of Mexico City
by AStonesThrow on Thursday March 20, 2025 @04:44PM
(#43428710)
> California is rather like Saudi Arabia
More true than you may think: the first two syllables rhyme with “Caliph” and the Spanish Conquistadores always had grand designs on such huge tracts of land, including naming the capital city after the Eucharist.
The Reconquista was accomplished at the same time Columbus sailed, and Reconquista II: Electric Boogalo has been underway for a hundred years...
Perhaps the key insight required to explain the 20th century.
It has the force of truth: now that I see it put so simply, I struggle to understand why no one has been able to do so before.