ASU professor says water, federal projects have changed Arizona 

Phil VanderMeer is a professor of history at Arizona State University, focusing on religious, American political, urban and community history, in the late 19th and 20th centuries. He recently published a history of contemporary Phoenix, and is now completing a longer study of the city’s economic, social and political development since the 1860s.
Here he is, providing the initial thoughts that came to him when given a specific decade:
1900s
The National Antiquities Act was passed and President Roosevelt used it to declare the Grand Canyon a national monument.
1910s
Statehood for Arizona and the subsequent elaboration of state government. The passage of women’s suffrage followed soon after, but long before women nationally won the right to vote in 1920 with the passage of the 19th Amendment.
1920s
The major development of water resources through the three dams on the Salt River, the Coolidge Dam on the Gila River, Hoover Dam and the Colorado River Compact.
1930s
The importance of federally funded projects in Phoenix and Tucson. One was the Civilian Conservation Corps, which built roads, trails and structures in South Mountain Park.
1940s
World War II and the Arizona Supreme Court decision giving Indians the right to vote in 1948.
1950s
The growth and successful annexation projects in Phoenix and Tucson including defense manufacturing, military bases and suburbanization.
1960s
The final authorization for construction of the Central Arizona Project was approved in 1968.
The decision establishing “one man one vote” leads to reapportionment of Arizona’s legislative districts and ultimately in Republican control of the Legislature for the first time.
1970s
The elimination of the requirement written into the state’s constitution in 1912 that a person had to speak English to vote.
1980s
Arizona was put onto the map in a bad way by then-Gov. Evan Mecham, who made the state seem “slightly absurd” to non-Arizonans. It wasn’t all bad, however, because newspaper readership went up from people who wanted to know what he said.
1990s
The struggle over defining the proper amount of public responsibility for education. The Legislature was pushing for increased privatization through vouchers, charter schools and home schooling, while also under funding education at all levels.
2000s
The attempt to redefine the state economy to focus on the biomedical field, which also involves defining new roles for state universities, particularly ASU and UofA, within the biomedical economy.
2010s
I hope that we can develop a better sense on how to control growth.