Manganiello’s Southern Water, Southern Power Water is a competent, workmanlike treatment of a timely topic. It provides a good overview of the importance of water (lakes, rivers, dams, reservoirs, et al.) in southern regional history. The book examines its subject in admirable detail, giving the lion’s share of its attention to matters in Georgia and then, in declining fashion, Florida, Alabama, and North Carolina—mostly as concerns their interactions with Georgia. Although readers will find the book to be a useful source of information about the role of private industries, utilities, and government agencies in water disputes, Southern Water, Southern Power ultimately falls short of achieving its more ambitious goals.
The book divides southern water history into three distinct periods—New South, New Deal, and Sunbelt. Chapters explore such issues as recent periods of drought followed by record flooding; New South boosterism; federal attempts, principally through the Tennessee Valley Administration (tva...