Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown
By (Author) Marc Weingarten
Rare Bird Books
Rare Bird Books
25th June 2019
United States
General
Non Fiction
Water industries
History of the Americas
363.610979494
Short-listed for Southern California Independent Booksellers Best Nonfiction Book 2016 (United States)
Paperback
280
Width 139mm, Height 215mm
Thirsty is the history of Los Angeles and its fraught relationship with water. As a city on the make since the early twentieth century, Los Angeles resources fought hard to keep up with its unchecked growth. The citys water chief William Mulholland built an aqueduct to grab water over 200 miles away in Owens Valley, but it wasnt enough. Thirsty is the gripping tale of Los Angeles epic battles for water, the larger-than-life characters that shaped a citys destiny, and the man-made tragedy that killed 400 and forever changed the way water would be harnessed and allocated.
Finalist for the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association Award
"Marc Weingartens new book, Thirsty: William Mulholland, California Water, and the Real Chinatown, neatly encapsulates the complex background of civic battles (the so-called water wars) between L.A. and the Owens Valley that led up to that moment and which helped to create the sprawling megalopolis we live in now."
LA Weekly
"...for media cognoscenti, the portions about [Harrison Gray] Otis, his soon-to-be-competitor Boyce and an enterprising delivery man named Harry Chandler will provide added enjoyment."
Adweek
Marc Weingarten is the author of Station to Station and The Gang that Wouldn't Write Straight; the co-editor of the anthologies Yes is the Answer and Here She Comes Now, and producer of the films God Bless Ozzy Osbourne and The Other One. He lives in Malibu.