Books received.

FROM RECLAMATION TO SUSTAINABILITY: WATER, AGRICULTURE, AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE AMERICAN WEST

Lawrence J. MacDonnell. University Press of Chicago, 1999. [phone]. 344 pp. $34.95 Hardbound.

From Reclamation to Sustainability: Water, Agriculture, and the Environment in the American West tells the story of four places in the West where development and use of water, primarily for irrigated agriculture, have been central to economic and social development MacDonnell describes how water has played an essential role in western agriculture, which in turn has been important for the settlement of the West. He goes on to examine the development of western water resources beyond their sustainable capacity, and the consequences of this overdevelopment. The author concludes that the manner in which the West moves toward sustainable use of its limited water resources matters at least as much as achieving sustainable use.

Lawrence J. MacDonnell is a cofounder of Stewardship Initiatives, a nonprofit organization working with community-based conservation partnerships in the West He has worked as a lawyer and a policy consultant on a wide range of environmental and natural resources issues during his career. He was the first director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado School of Law from 1983 to 1994.

DROWNING THE DREAM: CALIFORNIA'S WATER CHOICES AT THE MILLENIUM

David Carle. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. [phone]. 256 pp. $45.00 Hardbound.

Drowning the Dream: California's Water Choices at the Millennium uses first-person voices of Californians, through oral histories, contemporary newspaper articles, and autobiographies to show the transformation of California's environment and quality of life that came with the importation of water. Carle explores the historic change in California, showing that imported water has shaped the pattern of population growth in the state. He argues that California's damaged environment and reduced quality of life can be corrected if residents will step out of the historic pattern and embrace limited water supplies as a fact of life in this naturally dry region.

David Carle teaches biology at Cerro Coso Community College, Eastern Sierra College Center. He has worked as a state park ranger at Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument and was unit ranger in charge of the State Indian Museum in Sacramento. Since 1982 he has shared the unit ranger position at Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve with his wife.

EARTH, AIR, FIRE, WATER: HUMANISTIC STUDIES OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Edited by Jill Ker Conway, Kenneth Keniston, and Leo Marx. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000. 349 pp. $17.95 Clothbound; $50.00 Library Cloth Edition.

Earth, Air, Fire, Water: Humanistic Studies of the Environment is a collection of essays that seek to redirect our thinking about environmental issues by locating them in the behavior of human beings--in the institutions, beliefs, and practices that mediate between people and nature. The book opens with a section on the elements and the ways humans have understood them in the past. There follows a section devoted to social institutions and the ways in which we can learn from current and past efforts to study the interaction between people and nature. The concluding section analyzes the culture of modernity and how the human imagination has changed in response to the arrival of modern technology.

Jill Ker Conway is a visiting scholar and professor at MIT. She was president of Smith College for ten years. Her latest book is When Memory Speaks. Kenneth Keniston is Andrew Mellon Professor of Human Development at MIT. His most recent book is The Fragile Contract. Leo Marx is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of American Cultural History (emeritus) at MIT. His recent book, edited with Bruce Mazlish, is Progress: Fact or Illusion?

RELIGION, LAW, AND THE LAND: NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE JUDICIAL INTERPRETATION OF SACRED LAND

BRIAN EDWARD BROWN. WESTPORT, CT: GREENWOOD PRESS, 1999. (800) 2255800. 208 pp. $59.95 HARDBOUND.

Religion, Law, and the Land: Native Americans and the Judicial Interpretation of Sacred Land examines several federal and Supreme Court cases that the author argues document "the consistent judicial failure to accord constitutional protection to tribal religious belief and practice with to the land." Brown discusses each case, with particular focus upon the legal arguments made by plaintiffs and defendants as well as the courts' reasoning in their decisions. He concludes that a 1988 Supreme Court decision facilitated the development of the "wise-use" agenda. This policy led to an inclination to view land as property and prevented religious celebration, reverence, and liberation of the land as a sacred reality to be protected and preserved, rather than owned.

Brian Edward Brown is Chairman and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY. He teaches classes in the Buddhist, Chinese, and Native American traditions; religious cosmology; and the constitutional law of church-state relations.

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING: THE CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF BIOPHYSICAL RESOURCES (2ND ED.)

PAUL SELMAN. THOUSAND OAKS, CA: SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC., 2000. [phone]. 308 pp. $31.00 CLOTHBOUND.

Environmental Planning: The Conversation and Development of Biophysical Resources provides a comprehensive overview of the principles behind the planning of rural and urban environments. Selman pays particular attention to the scientific and social scientific background to environmental planning, introducing general ideas rather than specific practices, and stressing the importance of sustainable development. Individual chapters introduce different approaches to resource planning in the country and the city. The conclusion reviews methods for managing information and making decisions.

Paul Selman is Professor of Environmental Planning, Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, and is the author of Local Sustainability.

INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT OF HAZARDOUS WASTES: THE BASEL CONVENTION AND RELATED LEGAL RULES

Katharina Kummer. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1999. [phone]. 455 pp. $45.00 Clothbound.

International Management of Hazardouz Wastes: The Basel Convention and Related Legal Rules analyzes the relationship of the Basel Convention with other pertinent legal rules, and proposes means to form a comprehensive global regulatory regime for hazardous waste management on the basis of the Convention. Since the first publication of this book in 1995, an amendment to the Basel Convention was adopted. This edition therefore includes a substantially revised introduction providing an overview of the important developments since 1994, and their impact on the original analysis.

Katharina Kummer is Head of Section, Environmental Affairs, in the Political Directorate of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.