History that the NRA and the Sierra club would love. The Remaking of the Columbia River. White is the US's formost historian of any stripe. By staying away from the Southwest and California, White allows us to examine dams and their consequences with new eyes. It is a religious ritual in which the recantation of our sins and a pledge to sin no more promises to restore purity.
Some people believe sins go away.
History does not go away. If the conversation is not about fish and justice, about electricity and ways of life, about production and nature, about beauty as well as efficiency, and about how these things are inseparable in our own tangled lives, then we have not come to terms with our history on this river. Finally there is the path breaking work of Donald Pisani. Anyone who wishes to understand the tangled world of water in California must read his numerous volumes on the subject. Albert, R.C. 1987.