"[Ritvo's] book conveys in vividly minute particulars how difficult and frustrating the campaign must have been, and how divided the campaigners were in their loyalties. Without such detail, lessons cannot be learnt. Nor is documentation allowed to obscure the larger picture. Ritvo shows the whole business to be, in contrary ways, representative of its times: 'if Manchester was the icon of the Victorian future, the Lake District was the icon of nature, poetry and heritage.'"—Times Higher Education
— Times Higher Education
"In the 1870s, Manchester, England purchased Thirlmere, a country lake, and turned it into a resevoir for the city to use. The conflict surrounding the construction of the resevoir pitted industrialists against conservationists and helped launch the modern enviromental movement. This book serves as a reminder that people in other places and times have struggled to preserve nature, just like us."—Sierra Club
— Sierra Club
“A closely researched, sensitively observed, and handsomely illustrated study. . . . This is a gem of a book, enhanced by prose as crystal clear as Thirlmere’s fabled waters.”
— Peter Coates, Environmental History