American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest

This is a casual monthly book club in which we discuss a book we've read on a southwest history topic. In October, we'll discuss American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest by Kyle Paoletta.

Description:
Albuquerque. Phoenix. Tucson. El Paso. Las Vegas. Iconic American cities surrounded by desert and rust. Teeming metropolises that seem to exist independently of the seemingly inhospitable and arid landscape that surrounds them, belying the rich insight they offer into American stories of migration, industry, bloodshed, and rebirth.

Charting a geographic path through America’s largest and hottest deserts, acclaimed journalist Kyle Paoletta maps the past and future of these cities, and the many other settlements from rural town to urban sprawl that make up the region that has come to be called “the American Southwest.” Weaving together the stories of immigrants and indigenous populations, American Oasis pulls back the layers of settlement, sediment, habit, and effect that successive empires have left on the region, from the Athapascan, Diné, Tewa, Apache, and Comanche, to the Spanish, Mexican, and, finally, American.

As Paoletta’s journey into the Southwest’s history becomes inextricably linked to an exploration of its dependency on water, he begins to ask: where, ultimately, will cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix find themselves once the Colorado River and its branches dry up? Richly reported and sweeping in its history, American Oasis is the story of what one iconic region’s past can tell us about our shared environmental and cultural future.

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No food or drink is allowed in the room. Please no pets that aren't service animals. I'll get fined for any cleanup.