Although possessing a common physical heritage, the Sonoran Desert has taken on highly contrasting forms in its American and Mexican portions. This work does not, therefore, attempt a regional study in the usual sense of the term, but is rather an examination of disparate economic development, much influenced by contrasting technological achievements as well as the accidents of history.

Although the significance of geographic regionalism is implicit throughout this study, no attempt is made to show any overriding unity at work, geographical or otherwise, welding together a "desert region." Instead the desert acts as a stage for social drama in which drought and extreme heat provide the essential backcloth. The scarcity of water and man's inability to grow crops without irrigation have not, indeed, changed with time, and only constant reference to this immutable factor can give meaning to the evolution of human activities within the desert.

Roger Dunbier, whose special areas of interest include arid and urban land utilization and the economics of underdevelopment, has drawn upon extensive personal research and travel in Northwest Mexico and Arizona in preparing this volume. He holds the Doctor of Philosophy degree from Oxford University as well as the B.A. in geography, the latter earned while holding a Marshall Scholarship. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the University at Omaha, where he served on the faculty for three years, and has traveled in more than twenty-five countries. More recently, he has lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where he has developed numerous computer programs centered mainly about the storage and retrieval of geographical information, including the production of maps directly by computer.

“A discerning regional geography which tells much about a large part of the Mexican Northwest and American Southwest.”—Pacific Historical Review
 
“Readable, interesting, and well illustrated. Detailed documentation gives the reader an introduction to a wealth of published material which otherwise is difficult to find.”—Quarterly Review of Biology
 
“A first-rate study, bringing together virtually all of the facets of a large and complex desert region. It is a fine job of geographic presentation—the result of a combination of field study and exhaustive bibliographic research. . . . The writing is interesting and expressive.”—Economic Geography