At the Base of the Giant's Throat: The Past and Future of America's Great Dams

There are ninety thousand registered dams in the United States, fifty thousand of them classified as "major." Nearly all of this infrastructure was built during a forty-year period, from 1932 to 1972, in an era of public investment and political consensus that seems inconceivable today. These incredible structures--sometimes called the American Pyramids--helped the country rebound from the Great Depression, brought water and electricity to enormous reaches, helped win World War II for the A...