A River Lost

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"This book is about the destruction of the great river of the West by well-intentioned Americans whose lives embodied a pernicious contradiction. They prided themselves on self-reliance, yet depended on subsidies. They distrusted the federal government, yet allowed it to do as it pleased with the river and the land through which it flowed. As long as there was federal money, they did not mind that farmers wasted water, that dams pushed salmon to extinction, or that plutonium workers recklessly spilled radioactive gunk beside the river" (Blaine Harden, A River Lost: The Life and Death of the Columbia).

This book is a must read for anyone in Eastern Washington who is at all suspicious of the Tea Party movement's rhetoric concerning big government.