For nearly 200 years, the visions and aspirations of the people of Australia's west have been characterized by an 'unquenchable thirst.' This book uncovers a fear that has long gripped the region's inhabitants and loomed large on the state's political agenda: the fear of running out of water. This fear has shaped how urban and rural Western Australians learned to live with the effects of a variable climate on their water supply, lifestyle, and livelihood. This is a story of hardship and persistence; of inclusion, exclusion, and defiant profligacy in the face of growing scarcity, through a period of great development and social change. It is an engrossing environmental history that offers a new understanding of the past. Running Out?: Water in Western Australia questions this way of life, as Western Australians approach an uncertain future in a drying climate. Connecting the local to the global, the book provides a deep, historical nuanced discussion on the country's water resources and usage. *** Ruth Morgan has written a book that wears its scholarship easily and tells its story briskly with grace and skill...an analysis that has relevance well beyond Australia. -- Richard White, Stanford U. *** Lucid and engaging, this book tells a compelling story with vital implications for the nation's future...This is environmental history at its best. -- Grace Karskens, U. of New South Wales Subject: Australian Studies, Environmental Studies, History]