Rivers of Empire or How to Start an Independent Practice

Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West

Author: Donald Worster

When Henry David Thoreau went for his daily walk, he would consult his instincts on which direction to follow. More often than not his inner compass pointed west or southwest. "The future lies that way to me," he explained, "and the earth seems more unexhausted and richer on that side." In his own imaginative way, Thoreau was imitating the countless young pioneers, prospectors, and entrepreneurs who were zealously following Horace Greeley's famous advice to "go west." Yet while the epic chapter in American history opened by these adventurous men and women is filled with stories of frontier hardship, we rarely think of one of their greatest problems--the lack of water resources. And the same difficulty that made life so troublesome for early settlers remains one of the most pressing concerns in the western states of the late-twentieth century.
The American West, blessed with an abundance of earth and sky but cursed with a scarcity of life's most fundamental need, has long dreamed of harnessing all its rivers to produce unlimited wealth and power. In Rivers of Empire, award-winning historian Donald Worster tells the story of this dream and its outcome. He shows how, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Mormons were the first attempting to make that dream a reality, damming and diverting rivers to irrigate their land. He follows this intriguing history through the 1930s, when the federal government built hundreds of dams on every major western river, thereby laying the foundation for the cities and farms, money and power of today's West. Yet while these cities have become paradigms of modern American urban centers, and the farms successful high-tech enterprises, Worsterreminds us that the costs have been extremely high. Along with the wealth has come massive ecological damage, a redistribution of power to bureaucratic and economic elites, and a class conflict still on the upswing. As a result, the future of this "hydraulic West" is increasingly uncertain, as water continues to be a scarce resource, inadequate to the demand, and declining in quality.
Rivers of Empire represents a radically new vision of the American West and its historical significance. Showing how ecological change is inextricably intertwined with social evolution, and reevaluating the old mythic and celebratory approach to the development of the West, Worster offers the most probing, critical analysis of the region to date. He shows how the vast region encompassing our western states, while founded essentially as colonies, have since become the true seat of the American "Empire." How this imperial West rose out of desert, how it altered the course of nature there, and what it has meant for Thoreau's (and our own) mythic search for freedom and the American Dream, are the central themes of this eloquent and thought-provoking story--a story that begins and ends with water.

Interesting book: Pricing on Purpose or Packaging Yourself

How to Start an Independent Practice: A Nurse Practitioner's Guide to Success

Author: Zaumeyer

Many of your students are likely to open their own practice. This text/reference will teach them how to do it. This practical, user-friendly, easy-to-read resource manual takes the mystery out of setting up a practice -- from planning, to start up, to daily operation. It contains an array of practical topics, up-to-date material, and basic how to's in operating an independent practice. It includes forms for completing a self-assessment of personal skills, strengths and weaknesses, and understanding the basics of research.

KEY FEATURES -- Covers all business aspects of starting an independent practice

• The book teaches the reader how to:
• Prepare a business plan and do a market analysis
• Choose a location, and select a business name and logo, practice insurance, and start-up financing
• Set up fees and manage the reimbursement process
• Evaluate the need for hospital privileges and the application process
• Know the law regarding prescriptive privileges
• Set up and maintain good medical records
• Market through advertising, networking, and press releases
• Manage employees
• Manage finances, including which accounting program to use, and how to manage taxes
• Sell a business
• Appendices at the end of chapters include real examples of applications, resumes, CVs, protocols, charts, forms, consents, patient information sheets, and more
• Comprehensive Resource Directory incorporated into appropriate chapters contains contact information for journals, NP associations, insurance/HMOs, employment agencies, insurance carriers, review courses, and much more
• Worksheets assess personal skills, strengths and weaknesses, and professionalism

Rating

3 Stars from Doody