Notices

River Master: John Wesley Powell’s Legendary Exploration of the Colorado River and Grand Canyon

By Cecil Kuhne

New York: The Countryman Press, 2017. xviii + 269 pp. Cloth, $24.95

Cecil Kuhne, a river guide and travel writer, has authored this book about nineteenth-century explorer John Wesley Powell’s expedition down the Colorado River in time for the 1869 journey’s sesquicentennial anniversary. While many have previously written about Powell, River Master makes use of never-before-used primary sources to tell a different story about Powell’s expedition. Kuhne also draws upon his own experience running Powell’s route down the Colorado. An entry in the Countryman Press’s new American Grit series, this book may be of interest to fans of John Wesley Powell or for general readers looking for a Western adventure story.

The Man Who Thought He Owned Water: On the Brink with American Farms, Cities, and Food

By Tershia d’Elgin

Activist and water resources consultant Tershia d’Elgin weaves history and politics into this memoir of her family’s struggle over water rights on their Colorado farm. The Man Who Thought He Owned Water is a personal story contextualized within the larger framework of water scarcity and conflict in the arid American West. Written to be both informative and persuasive, this book is an invitation to the reader to be mindful of our society’s water consumption.

Collecting on the Edge: Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art

Edited by Bolton Colburn

Boulder: University Press of Colorado and the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, 2018. 288 pp. Cloth, $50.00

Collecting on the Edge may push against readers’ expectations of what a Western art book should look like. Filled with full-color reproductions of modern and contemporary art from the collection at Utah State University’s Nora Eccles Harrison Museum, this book seeks to highlight the “daring, innovative, and iconoclastic” works of art made by artists from the West. Placed into context with an essay by art critic Michael Duncan and an interview with collector George Wanlass, Collecting on the Edge aims to showcase Western art that is sophisticated and cutting edge.

A History of Mortgage Banking in the West: Financing America’s Dreams

By E. Michael Rosser and Diane M. Sanders

Boulder: University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press. 2017. 250 pp. Cloth, $35.00, Ebook, $28.00

This book, a collaboration between mortgage banker and educator E. Michael Rosser and historian Diane M. Sanders, recounts the role of finance in the West over the last 150 years. Beginning with agricultural lending, the mortgage industry grew into a collection of large firms that financed some of the region’s key components of development—water infrastructure and the railroads. The book continues its analysis through the causes of the 2007 mortgage crisis. Drawing upon Rosser’s personal expertise as well as a variety of primary sources, A History of Mortgage Banking in the West would appeal to readers interested in the economic history of the West.