Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #806390 in Books
• Published on: 1996
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 448 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Washington's mighty Columbia River has been transformed in 60 years from an unruly river into a series of placid pools; it is the most heavily dammed river in the world, and the greatest producer of hydroelectricity. Dietrich (The Final Forest), Pulitzer prize-winning science reporter for the Seattle Times, looks at the Columbia as a whole?its history, geology, biology, hydrology, economics, contemporary politics and management. The report is disturbing and compelling. Wild salmon stocks have nearly disappeared; there are competing demands on the river for power, irrigation and fish. Dietrich charges that no single agency is in charge of measuring pollution or maintaining the health of the river. Conceding that dams are of undeniable benefit, producing energy, food, navigation and flood control, he notes that few would pass environmental and economic review today. This comprehensive survey of the Columbia ecosystem points out the social and environmental costs of engineering marvels. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Dietrich, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Seattle Times and author of The Final Forest (LJ 5/1/92), here covers a wealth of information and personal histories. Once supporting the greatest chinook salmon and steelhead trout runs in the world and one of the most complex native cultures on the continent, the Columbia has been transformed into a series of computer-controlled reservoirs virtually devoid of fish, designed to maximize hydroelectric production. While Dietrich has done a good job of examining the history, current conditions, and problems confronting the river from a variety of viewpoints, the organization of his text seems erratic at times. A well-researched chronology of the river is included. Recommended for all regional, as well as subject and history collections, in secondary school libraries and above.
Tim Markus, Evergreen State Coll. Lib., Olympia, Wash.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ingram
Part history, part sociology, part travelogue, and part journalistic account of a contemporary crisis, this sweeping portrait of the powerful, beautiful Columbia River explores how people changed the river and were in turn changed by it. 3 maps; index.

Customer Reviews

Exceptional history, balanced perspective
I have taught Pacific Northwest History at high school and college levels, and found this book one of the best regional histories published. Although focused on the Columbia River, it presents more of the general history of the interior Northwest (east of the Interstate 5 corridor) than any other history of the region. Of course, the Columbia River and its tributaries are central to Northwest history from the fish that archaeologists discovered to be the core of Kennewick Man's diet to the present Kaiser Steelworkers lockout and the controversy over Snake River dams.

The story of human modification of the Columbia River is one of heroism and greed, boom and bust, promotion and fraud, and the winners and losers that go along with the competition among interest groups. Dietrich tells the story with drama, fairness to competing interests, and the kind of focus that requires a point of view. His history is honest, rather than objective; committed, rather than unbiased. It is rich in details, but doesn't lose sight of the big picture. This is newspaper-style feature writing at its best.

At the core of this book is a story of a peoples' faith in progress, the achievement this faith enabled, and the blind spots this faith nurtured. Immense benefits and enormous failures have resulted from this faith. Now, as Dietrich makes clear, we must reexamine our basic assumptions and redetermine our priorities.

Not every reader will agree with Dietrich's priorities and perspectives, but few can identify critical points that he missed. His facts are sound. My only complaint is that too little accommodation is made for readers who want to track down and verify some of his statements of fact. The book has a bibliography and index, but no endnotes. It is published by a university press, but lacks the usual scholarly apparatus.

A fascinating and well-told regional history
I knew next to nothing about the Pacific Northwest, having only spent a few days there as a kid for the Spokane World's Fair. William Dietrich's Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River filled much of my knowledge gap with a fascinating and well-told story. Dietrich recounts the history of the Columbia, from its original creation through geologic forces and its discovery by Lewis and Clark and other explorers, to development of the river and the region by forestry, fishing, and industrial interests, harnessing of the river through multiple dams (including the huge Grand Coulee dam), decimation of the salmon population and later attempts by environmental and Native American interests to revive the salmons, and turf wars between various interest groups. Dietrich's book is extremely well researched and annotated, but reads not like laborious scholarship but like a labor of love. He clearly loves the region he writes about and is troubled by its many changes; he conveys both his enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge through this graceful book.

Great summary of history and river uses.
Really enjoyed reading the numerous stories of Columbia River history and the competing uses of the river. Towards the end the author gets a little too dramatic about wild salmon and native Americans and seems to lose the balanced views presented thoughout most of the book.