American Oasis

An expansive and revelatory historical exploration of the multicultural, water-seeking, land-destroying settlers of the most arid corner of North America, arguing that in order to know where the United States is going in the era of mass migration and climate crisis we must understand where the Southwest has already been

“A lively, thoughtful tour.”—The Los Angeles Times • “Elegant.”—The New Yorker

“Essential reading for understanding the forces shaping the modern Southwest—and, possibly, the planet’s future.”—New Mexico Magazine

Albuquerque. Phoenix. Tucson. El Paso. Las Vegas. Iconic American cities of glass and steel surrounded by desert and rust. Decadent metropolises that seem to exist independently of the inhospitable landscape around them, belying the rich insight they offer into American stories of migration, industry, bloodshed, and rebirth.

Acclaimed journalist Kyle Paoletta charts a geographic and historical path through America's uncompromising deserts, mapping the past and future of these cities and other beachheads of civilization—from rural pueblos to sprawling exurbs—that make up the region known as the American Southwest. Weaving together the stories of immigrants and indigenous populations, American Oasis pulls back layers of settlement, sediment, habit, and effect that successive empires have left on the region, from the O'odham, Diné, Tewa, Apache, and Comanche, to the Spanish, Mexican, and, finally, American.

As Paoletta’s journey into the Southwest’s history becomes inextricably linked to an exploration of its dependency on water, he begins to ask: Where, ultimately, will cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix find themselves once the Colorado River and its branches dry up? What, ultimately, will become of the entire nation if we don't look back in order to see ahead? Richly reported and sweeping in its history, American Oasis is the story of what one dynamic region’s past can tell us about our shared future.