Owens Valley Revisited A Reassessment of the West's First Great Water Transfer

". . . Libecap constructs a convincing revisionist history of the Owens Valley land and water purchases by the City of Los Angeles in the early 20th century."-Ellen Hanak, Public Policy Institute of California "Libecap provides a stimulating new view of the infamous Owens Valley Water Purchase. Using scientific tools and objectively weighing the evidence, the book gives the reader an accurate understanding of this controversial and fascinating history."-Mary Shirley, The Ronald Coase Institute "This book is an important contribution to the recent literature on institutions, property rights, and transaction costs. Libecap's careful correction of the historical record is a welcome addition to the ongoing debate about water transfer policy."-P. J. Hill, Wheaton College "In his latest book Owen's Valley Revisited, Libecap takes on one of the most enduring myths in western water history-the famous transfer of water from Owen's Valley to Los Angeles that occurred in the early part of the twentieth century The result is impressive: using extensive archival data, Libecap manages to convincingly demonstrate that the popular 'rap and pillage' myth surrounding Owen's Valley is in actuality much more complicated than generally perceived."-H-Net "Gary Libecap has produced a new economic analysis of the century-long, acrimonious relations between the Los Angeles's Department of Water and Power (LADWP), and Owen's Valley, a region of California that supplies water to Los Angeles His book belongs on the shelf of any water resources economist, as well as on the shelves of historians seeking multiple perspectives of the American West."-Haddad "Owen's Valley Revisited fills an important need for anyone who wants a balanced picture of the water history of Los Angeles in the Owen's Valley and Mono Basins. It is concise and yet, thorough. For any fair commentary on the LADWP Owen's Valley history, no writer should begin without first reading Libecap's Owen's Valley Revisited."-Water & Power Associates, Inc. Newsletter "Scholars of the Los Angeles-Owens Valley controversy will be most interested in the revisionist approach of Gary D. Libecap's Owens Valley Revisited . . . The book does provide a chronology and a solid bibliography as well as several maps, graphs, and tables that students of this story will find useful."-Randal Beeman, Southern California Quarterly