Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Why Should We Care About Rivers? -- American Rivers -- The Physical River System -- River Regions -- The River Ecosystem -- Humans and Rivers -- Conquering a New World: Pioneer Impacts -- Placer Mining -- Mining in California -- Birds That Swim in Rivers -- Poisoning America: Commercial Impacts -- Rivers That Burn -- The State of Our Nation's Rivers -- The Great Lakes Region Today -- Hellbenders, Allegheny Alligators, and Devil Dogs -- Institutional Conquest: Bureaucratic Impacts -- Reconsidering Dams -- More "Efficient" Rivers: Channelization -- The Downside of Efficiency -- The DEC Project: Boondoggle or Salvation? -- A Beaver-Tailed Fish -- Trying to Do the Right Thing: Rehabilitation Impacts -- Nothing New Under the Sun -- Reconsidering Earlier Assumptions -- Bringing Back a River of Grass -- Gravel Worms -- Thinking in Terms of Rivers -- Endangered U.S. Rivers -- Connections -- Personal Choices -- Collective Actions -- Notes -- Index.