| A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia Contributor(s): Harden, Blaine (Author) |
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ISBN: 0393316904 ISBN-13: 9780393316902 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company OUR PRICE: $14.36 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 1997 Annotation: "Superbly reported and written with clarity, insight, and great skill" ("The Washington Post Book World"), this account of Harden's journey down the Columbia River--part history, part memoir, part lament--presents a personal narrative of rediscovery joined with a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of nuclear waste, and of a once-wild river now tamed to puddled remains. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Nature | Ecosystems & Habitats - Rivers - Nature | Essays - Nature | Natural Resources |
| Dewey: 333.91 |
| LCCN: 95038618 |
| Physical Information: 0.69" H x 5.48" W x 8.19" (0.60 lbs) 272 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Pacific Northwest - Cultural Region - Western U.S. |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: After a two-decade absence, Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden returned to his small-town birthplace in the Pacific Northwest to follow the rise and fall of the West's most thoroughly conquered river. Harden's hometown, Moses Lake, Washington, could not have existed without massive irrigation schemes. His father, a Depression migrant trained as a welder, helped build dams and later worked at the secret Hanford plutonium plant. Now he and his neighbors, once considered patriots, stand accused of killing the river. As Blaine Harden traveled the Columbia-by barge, car, and sometimes on foot-his past seemed both foreign and familiar. A personal narrative of rediscovery joined a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of nuclear waste, and of a once-wild river now tamed to puddled remains. Part history, part memoir, part lament, this is a brave and precise book, according to the New York Times Book Review. It must not have been easy for Blaine Harden to find himself turning his journalistic weapons against his own heritage, but he has done the conscience of his homeland a great service. |
Contributor Bio(s): Harden, Blaine: - Blaine Harden, an award-winning journalist, is a contributor to The Economist and a former foreign correspondent for the Washington Post. He lives in Seattle, Washington. |