A review of Richard White's "The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River"

The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. By Richard White. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1995, ix, 130 pp. Paperback, $12.00, ISBN 0-8090-1583-8). In a close examination of the history and development of the Columbia River, The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River connects the elements of natural and artificial energy in order to reveal both the beauty and the danger of the Columbia today. In his book, Richard White does a …

…would all find something in this work that would interest them. This "organic machine", through human intervention, has created a socially, economically, and physically connected network of human societies and natural phenomena bound together by the work of both human and nature. Although the natural aspects of the river have been forgotten, White reveals how man could not fully understand nature without developing it, and how nature also shapes and determines the destiny of man.