Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River

The story of human modification of the Columbia River is one of heroism and greed, boom and bust, promotion and fraud, and the winners and losers that go along with the competition among interest groups. Dietrich tells the story with drama, fairness to competing interests, and the kind of focus that requires a point of view. His history is honest, rather than objective; committed, rather than unbiased. It is rich in details, but doesn't lose sight of the big picture. This is newspaper-style feature writing at its best.

At the core of this book is a story of a peoples' faith in progress, the achievement this faith enabled, and the blind spots this faith nurtured. Immense benefits and enormous failures have resulted from this faith. Now, as Dietrich makes clear, we must reexamine our basic assumptions and redetermine our priorities.

Not every reader will agree with Dietrich's priorities and perspectives, but few can identify critical points that he missed. His facts are sound. My only complaint is that too little accommodation is made for readers who want to track down and verify some of his statements of fact. The book has a bibliography and index, but no endnotes. It is published by a university press, but lacks the usual scholarly apparatus.


A fascinating and well-told regional history   November 1, 1998
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I knew next to nothing about the Pacific Northwest, having only spent a few days there as a kid for the Spokane World's Fair. William Dietrich's Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River filled much of my knowledge gap with a fascinating and well-told story. Dietrich recounts the history of the Columbia, from its original creation through geologic forces and its discovery by Lewis and Clark and other explorers, to development of the river and the region by forestry, fishing, and industrial interests, harnessing of the river through multiple dams (including the huge Grand Coulee dam), decimation of the salmon population and later attempts by environmental and Native American interests to revive the salmons, and turf wars between various interest groups. Dietrich's book is extremely well researched and annotated, but reads not like laborious scholarship but like a labor of love. He clearly loves the region he writes about and is troubled by its many changes; he conveys both his enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge through this graceful book.


Great summary of history and river uses.   May 4, 1998
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Really enjoyed reading the numerous stories of Columbia River history and the competing uses of the river. Towards the end the author gets a little too dramatic about wild salmon and native Americans and seems to lose the balanced views presented thoughout most of the book.