On one level, Moroccan Mirages is about land, water, and plants; on another, it deals with the dynamics of imperial rule, the impact of ideas, and the lasting legacy of colonial patterns. Swearingen brings many surprising points to light in his excellent, original study of Morocco's historical geography. He shows, for example, how a faulty notion that Morocco had once been the "granary of Rome" inspired the French conquerors of Morocco in the 1920s to make Morocco their granary too — with disastrous results for agriculture in Morocco (which is no one's granary) and France (which serves very well as a granary). Then came the California interlude in the 1930s, when colon agricultural spies sent samples of grafts and cuttings by mail back to Morocco.
But most important for present-day Morocco were the ambitious efforts to bring vast areas of Moroccan land under irrigation through the construction of dams. Swearingen shows how this program in effect subsidized the largest, richest landowners — namely the French and some of the Moroccan elite — at the expense of millions of peasants. He convincingly shows that, all the many changes in Morocco since the 1930s notwithstanding, this misguided colonial policy remains solidly in place even today. As the population soars, so do financial disparities and favoritism bestowed on the rich creates an agrarian predicament that "has the potential to develop into a severe crisis in the non-distant future."
