The Orphaned Land
New Mexico’s Environment Since the Manhattan Project

Although most people prefer not to think about them, hazardous wastes, munitions testing, radioactive emissions, and a variety of other issues affect the quality of land water and air in the Land of Enchantment, as they do all over the world.

In this book, veteran New Mexico journalist V. B. Price assembles a vast amount of information on more than fifty years of deterioration of the state’s environment, most of it hitherto available only in scattered newspaper articles and government reports. Viewing New Mexico as a microcosm of global ecological degradation, Price’s is the first book to give the general public a realistic perspective on the problems surrounding New Mexico's environmental health and resources.

345 pages | 65 images | Photography by Nell Farrell

Read an interview with V.B. Price on the state's toxic legacy in the Alibi

“A monumental compendium. I know of no other book on New Mexico that covers so broad a field and synthesizes so much information so accessibly.”
—Lucy Lippard, author of The Lure of the Local

“In this passionate, monumentally informed book, V. B. Price takes a view of New Mexico as long as it is broad and deep. This is history that teaches, but more importantly, this is history that cares.”
—Virginia Scharff, Director, Center for the Southwest, University of New Mexico

“In this age of internet clicks, RSS feeds and Twitter, journalists can alert readers to environmental disasters faster than ever. But what the public needs most is to slow down, learn our history, and see the world around us ever more clearly, to know it more deeply. Price is a graceful guide through New Mexico’s complex environmental history. He exposes the harsh realities, yes, but reminds us of beauty, and will awaken in even the most reluctant—or discouraged—reader the instinct to protect not only our homelands, but also the truth.”
—Laura Paskus, environmental journalist