Complexity in a Ditch: Bringing Water to the Idaho Desert

Water–or the lack of it–has profoundly shaped the arid American West. On Idaho’s Snake River Plain, the irrigation process has been particularly complex, influenced by local and national politics as well as geography and technology. Hugh T. Lovin’s insightful articles, previously published in a wide array of scholarly journals, offer a thorough examination of the transformation and controversy that surrounds delivering water to the region’s desert. Idaho historian Adam Sowards’ valuable introduction sets Lovin’s work in context and concludes, No one knows irrigation better than Hugh Lovin, and the essays included here are gems of historical research.