River of Life, Channel of Death: Fish and Dams on the Lower Snake

Keith Petersen's award-winning history of the Lower Snake River dams chronicles the bitter conflict between the Pacific Northwest's most potent symbols-fish and dams. Taking a balanced approach to this contentious issue, Petersen deftly traces the deep historical roots of the current salmon crisis and considers outcomes that have the potential to impact millions of people.

River of Life, Channel of Death tells the story

o of the long struggle to bring navigation to Lewiston, Idaho, and hydropower to a region;
o of the influence of powerful congressional representatives and booster organizations;
o of a clash of cultures, first between Indians and whites and later between environmentalists and developers;
o and of the role of the federal government in Western settlement.

While the dams transformed Lewiston into the farthermost inland seaport in the western United States, they continue to be a subject of controversy in the national debate over the fate of Northwest salmon. In a preface written for this timely new edition, Petersen comments on issues, including dam breaching, that have arisen since his book was first published.

"Historian Keith Petersen has done a superb job of chronicling the achievement of the building of the lower Snake River dams and the natural resource devastation they wrought." -Former Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus

"Petersen writes history the way it should be written-free of academic cant and jargon . . . Evocative, eminently readable, River of Life is an important book about one of the West's most timely topics." -Alvin Josephy, Jr., author of The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the West

"Keith Petersen has written a fascinating book of epic sweep. Prodigiously researched, informative, commendably balanced, and exceptionally readable, it is both outstanding history and an eloquent appeal." - LeRoy Ashby, author of Fighting the Odds: The Life of Senator Frank Church

Keith Petersen is the Idaho Coordinator for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration and the author of several books on Northwest history. River of Life, Channel of Death was named "Book of the Year" by the Idaho Library Association in 1995.