How to Survive the Desert: Cities of the Southwest
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What historical events shaped the American Southwest?
Welcome back to American History Hit. Glad you could join us. I'm Don Wildman. In 1848, after victory in the Mexican-American War, the United States grew its landmass by about a third, some 525,000 square miles, a gigantic geography. that would go on to become the states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, even some of Wyoming. The Rio Grande River was recognized as a major stretch of America's southern border with Mexico, and Mexican claims on parts of Texas were relinquished. Manifest destiny was essentially made manifest by the Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, which ended that war. The United States of America would now officially stretch from sea to shining sea. This vast territorial annexation was obviously a boon to national pride and economic potential. It was now a realistic option for any American with horse and wagon to go further west and not just to Oregon. But this presented huge challenges as well, heightening divisive national issues having to do with enslavement, state and federal jurisdictions, and the rights of indigenous peoples.
No less complicated was the practical consideration of how these new regions would be settled, when so much of them were made of dreadfully arid lands and parched deserts. Somehow, someway, they would be settled, making a deep and continuing impact on American culture, altering the nation forever. Journalist Kyle Paoletta has authored a brand new book on the subject entitled American Oasis, and tracks the historical, cultural, political, and economic impact of this dry, dusty, yet vibrantly populated realm we call the American Southwest. Hello, Kyle. Welcome to American History Hit. Thanks so much. Great to be with you. A vast subject matter to take on, the American Southwest. But you grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, so this is a personal mission for you, I suppose. What prompted this book?
Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is very much having grown up in New Mexico and then lived and worked on the East Coast in New York and Boston for the better part of two decades. And what happens when you're from the Southwest and you spend a lot of time, especially in the people in the rest of the country know about the place you're from. And the sort of broad generalities that, you know, maybe someone's visited the Grand Canyon. Maybe they went to Santa Fe once. They have a grandparent or an uncle who retired to Phoenix. There's sort of like these touchstones that people have. But there's also this broad ignorance that stems from, I think, what you were talking about a little bit in the intro of this
this sense of the Southwest as a very kind of foreboding, unwelcoming geography that how could people live there? How can there be those cities there? And so I think part of what made me really want to kind of return home in a way and have a deeper engagement with the history of the region was really wanting to both explain the Southwest to the rest of the country and help people understand the process through which all that land that was incorporated into the country through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, how it was integrated into the country, as well as to kind of help the Southwest understand itself. Because I think so many people I grew up with are pretty new to the region. I mean, my grandmother's family first came there in the 1910s, but plenty of people moved to Las Vegas last year and have no real sense of the history of this place that is you know, some of the fastest growing part of the country still.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What historical events shaped the American Southwest?
1:14–5:54
2
Who is Kyle Paoletta and why did he write American Oasis?
5:54–12:14
3
How did ancient peoples manage water in the Southwest?
12:14–14:11
4
What challenges did Phoenix face in developing its water system?
14:11–16:06
5
How did the Bureau of Reclamation influence water management in Phoenix?
16:06–19:25
6
What is the Central Arizona Project and why is it important?
19:25–20:28
7
What role did John Wesley Powell play in understanding Southwestern water?
20:28–22:39
8
How did federal laws encourage settlement in arid Southwestern lands?
22:39–38:47