Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian **** 1/2

The subtitle of this excellent book is "John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West." It tells the story of Powell's famous trip down the Colorado River and the consequences that flowed from it. Major Powell and his team learned a lot about the realities of the West, especially about "the Plateau Province" that spans Colorado and Utah, and Powell spent the rest of his life trying to get the rest of the country to recognize the realities instead of acting on naive fantasies. In particular, he demonstrated that homesteaders were doomed to failure without irrigation, no matter how hard they worked.

The first half of the book combines equal parts of adventure, geography, science, history, and politics. History and politics take over in the second half, giving an interesting new perspective on the period of westward expansion after the Civil War. I was surprised to learn how the seemingly neutral topic of topographical mapping ended up at the center of a battle over the proper role of (federal) government. The introduction by Bernard DeVoto gives a very accurate summary of the book's argument; it is possibly the best preface I've ever read.

I have only two criticisms of the book. The latter chapters lack the adventure and the interesting discoveries of the earlier chapters. It's hard to fault Stegner for that, since it's just a fact about the history and Powell's life story.     Second, Stegner often seems like a Powell apologist, unquestioningly taking the Major's side in every argument without considering the merit of the other side.