THE SOURCE

In this fresh and powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the U.S. Constitution's roots in interstate river navigation and the discovery of gold in 1848, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina and the water wars in the west.

America has more than 250,000 rivers, coursing over more than 3 million miles, connecting the disparate regions of the United States. Over the course of this nation's history, the veins and arteries of this circulatory system have served as integral trade routes, borders, passageways, sewers, and sinks. We have harnessed their power with waterwheels and dams, straightened them for ships, drained them with irrigation canals, set them on fire, and even attempted to restore them.

In this fresh and powerful work of environmental history, Martin Doyle tells the epic story of America and its rivers, from the U.S. Constitution's roots in interstate river navigation and the discovery of gold in 1848, to the failure of the levees in Hurricane Katrina and the water wars in the west. Along the way, he explores how rivers are central to debates at the heart of the American experiment - over federalism, sovereignty and property rights, taxation, regulation, conservation, and development.

Through his encounters with experts all over the country - a Mississippi River tugboat captain, an Erie Canal lock operator, a dendrochronologist who can predict the future based on the story trees tell about the past, a western rancher fighting for water rights - Doyle reveals the central role rivers have played in American history - and how vital they are to its future.


Martin Doyle is director of the Water Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and a professor of river science and policy at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. He lives in North Carolina.