I've been meaning to review "Water and Power" for some time. Kahrl's careful work is evident in his immaculately detailed research, but he never tries to impose a viewpoint on the material, letting it speak for itself. This was a good decision, since the story about the birth of Los Angeles at the expense of the Owens Valley needs little embellishment to be fascinating.The book presents a picture I never knew, namely that Los Angeles' growth into a global city was almost kind of an accident. Built in the middle of the desert where large numbers of people were never intended to live, the nascent city had a precarious future before numerous wise -- and largely unscrupulous men -- saw that LA would die of parched thirst without water, and a lot of it in constant flow. Men like William Mulholland, the leader of the city water company, E.J. Harriman, the head of Union Pacific, and Harrison Otis, the publisher of the L.A. Times saw the Owens Valley as the perfect instrument to ensure LA's future -- even at the cost of the people in the Valley. The story of how these men, aided by scores of greedy land speculators and negligent government officials, slowly strangled the Owens Valley and its farmers is a terrific chronicle, and sets out in full detail the shadowy world and maneuvers for which "Chinatown" only scratched the surface."Water and Power" may seem to cover a innocuous, dry (no pun intended) subject, but as Kahrle presents it, it reads as a taut, structured novel. In certain respects it reminds me of Truman Capote in "In Cold Blood" in its ability to animate a true story (albeit minus some of the murderous suspense). I'd say they should make it into a movie, but I guess they have! Great read and fabulous history. An overlooked gem worth your time.