“Among many other things, those dirtbag river runners uphold the virtue of disobedience: the principle that in a free society, defiance for its own sake sometimes carries value and meaning, if only because power in all of its forms—commercial, governmental,… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“And Petschek had asked—because he was genuinely puzzled by this—why so many people, Americans especially, seemed to feel that happiness was an entitlement. By dint of his own experiences as a refugee and a wanderer, Petschek found the notion to be strangely naive and immature—especially here at the bottom of a chasm whose ramparts offered such irrefutable testimony not only… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share
“We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“And you really live by the river? What a jolly life!” “By it and with it and on it and in it,” said the… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“The river’s isolation and secrecy, however, were only part of what made it superlative. There was also its vertical drop. The Colorado’s watershed encompasses a series of high-desert plateaus that stretch across the most austere and hostile quarter of the West, an area encompassing one-twelfth the landmass of the continental United States, whose breadth and average height are surpassed only… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share
“A river so clear and transparent that the bright stones suspended within its currents could be seen with the naked eye, glittering with the… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Three generations later, viewed from the standpoint of the digital age, a structure such as Hoover can appear to suffer from a kind of… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Beyond the rapids themselves, the river also concealed a host of other obstacles, wicked spots whose names offered a sufficiently graphic warning of what… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Among many other things, those dirtbag river runners uphold the virtue of disobedience: the principle that in a free society, defiance for its own… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“But what made Litton’s ideas even stranger—and so at odds with prevailing sentiment—was the depth of his rage. Without quite realizing it, he was… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“Historians often minimize or discount the impact that any one individual can have on human destiny-and for good reason. Given the broad tides in… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“if there is a point to being in the canyon, it is not to rush but to linger, suspended in a blue-and-amber haze of… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
“The English novelist J. B. Priestley once said that if he were an American, he would make the final test of whatever men chose… — Kevin Fedarko Copy Share Image
