The list of selected staff publications may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.
A review essay of Orrin H. Pilkey and Katherine L. Dixon’s critique of coastal engineering and beach restoration, The Corps and the Shore.
Publications
“Beach Preservation Washout.”
Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 13 (Fall 1998): 107–108.
“American Chestnut Trees at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.”
With Stephen VanHoven. In Forest History Today (Spring/Fall 2004): 66–67.
"Environmental Politics in the American South: The Fight over the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway."
Environmental History Review 15 (Spring 1991): 1–24.
Analyzes the maturation of environmentalism in the American South during the 1970s as expressed in the opposition to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ massive waterway in Mississippi and Alabama. Recipient of the Society for History in the Federal Government’s 1992 James Madison Prize.
"The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and the Evolution of Cultural Resources Management."
The Public Historian 14 (Spring 1992): 7–30.
Traces the changes in the documentation and preservation of cultural heritage sites as influenced by the cultural resources management strategies employed during the construction of the nation’s largest water project in the 1970s and 1980s. Recipient of the National Council on Public History’s 1993 G. Wesley Johnson Prize.
"A Sense of Place: Donald Worster’s Dust Bowl."
Technology and Culture 48 (April 2007): 377–85.
Congressional Hearings on Science and Technology Issues: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Suggested Improvements
with Marcel C. LaFollette. Background report prepared for the Committee on Science, Technology, and Congress. New York: Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, 1990.
Examines the various ways in which the U.S. Congress has used hearings to receive, question, and debate scientific and technical information.
Technology and Choice: Readings from Technology and Culture
with Marcel C. LaFollette, eds. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1991.
A collection of essays providing a spectrum of historical perspectives on how, when, or why individuals, societies, governments, and industries have made choices regarding the use of technologies. The essays offer historical accounts, some recent and some from several centuries ago, of the invention, dissemination, adoption, or rejection of technologies that range in complexity from electrical plugs to nuclear power plants.
"Fulfilling the Science and Technology Advisory Needs of Congress."
In Science and Technology Advice to the President, Congress, and Judiciary, edited by in William T. Golden, 443–46. New York: Pergamon Press, 1988.
A historical overview of the U.S. Congress’s growing dependency on scientific and technical advice, and the methods by which it has sought to obtain reliable, independent information.
"John Lucian Savage."
In Dictionary of American Biography, supplement 8, 572–73. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988.
A biographical sketch of the prominent U.S. Bureau of Reclamation engineer who designed scores of high dams in the American West, including the record-setting Hoover Dam on the Colorado River.
A History of Science Policy in the United States, 1940–1985.
Background Report No. 1, prepared for the Task Force on Science Policy of the House Committee on Science and Technology. 99th Cong., 2d sess., 1986.
An examination of the policy issues and debates that shaped the relationship between government and science in the United States since 1940. Special attention is paid to the evolution of science policy planning mechanisms, along with the ongoing development of Executive agency science programs and the periodic attempts to coordinate the nation’s overall research efforts.
"Government Funding of Scientific Instrumentation: A Review of U.S. Policy Debates since World War II,"
with Gregory A. Good. Science, Technology, & Human Values 11 (Summer 1986): 34–46.
A history of the evolving instrumentation needs of science and the various programs proposed and/or put in place by the federal government to help meet those needs.
"Bibliography of Historical Studies Covering Federal Research Agencies since 1945."
In Bibliography of Studies and Reports on Science Policy and Related Topics, 1945–1985, Background Report No. 2—Part A, 217-21, prepared for the Task Force on Science Policy of the House Committee on Science and Technology. 99th Cong., 2d sess., 1986.
A compilation of works addressing the history of U.S. federal agency efforts to advance scientific research since World War II.
"Professionalism vs. Special Interest: The Debate over Engineering Education in Nineteenth Century America."
Potomac Review 26–27 (1984–1985): 72–94.
A study of how engineering changed from a craft-oriented occupation to a professional occupation in the United States during the nineteenth century.
"United States Army Corps of Engineers."
In Government Agencies, Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions, edited by Donald R. Whitnah, 513–16. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983.
A brief history of the world’s largest engineering organization and how its missions have evolved in accord with shifting public values.
“At the Intersection of Histories: Technology and the Environment”
with Joel A. Tarr. Technology and Culture 39 (October 1998): 601–640.
A survey of publishing trends in the history of technology and environmental history that focuses on the growing number of works that have addressed the interplay of technology and the environment. It also suggests a range of opportunities for future research.
Nelson P. Lewis and the City Efficient: The Municipal Engineer in City Planning during the Progressive Era.
Essays in Public Works History, no. 11. Chicago: Public Works Historical Society, 1981.
A biography of the New York City engineer who championed the contributions of engineers to city planning during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
"Eugene J. Houdry."
In Dictionary of American Biography, supplement 7, 367–69. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981.
A biographical sketch of the chemical engineer renowned for his contributions to the refining of gasoline and aviation
fuels.
Twenty Years of Science in the Public Interest: A History of the Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program.
Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1994.
Examines the combined efforts of the nation’s leading scientific and engineering societies to provide technically trained staff to the U.S. Congress and its support agencies.
"Industrial Technology and the American West: The Transformation of Hard Rock Mining."
Midwest Review 3 (Spring 1981), 30–33.
A review essay of Mark Wyman’s book, Hard Rock Epic: Western Miners and the Industrial Revolution, 1860–1910.
“APWA: Using History to Advance Appreciation of Public Works.”
APWA Reporter 79 (June 2012): 86-87.
Reflections on how popular opinions about the appropriate role of public enterprises have devolved since the founding of the American Public Works Association in 1937, and how historical inquiry can contribute to society’s understanding of this trend and its consequences.
"Technology, Pollution, and the Environment."
with Joel A. Tarr, eds. A special theme issue of Environmental History Review 18 (Spring 1994).
A collection of essays that explore the reciprocal influences of technology and the environment during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
“Natural Resources and Environmental Policy.”
In The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies, edited by W. Elliot Brownlee and Hugh Davis Graham, 233–56. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
A historical assessment of President Ronald Reagan’s environmental record.
"M.M. O'Shaughnessy."
APWA Reporter 46 (March 1979), 4–5. (Reprinted in People Making Public Works History: A Century of Progress, 1894–1994, Robert D. Bugher, 261-62. Kansas City, Mo.: American Public Works Association, 1998.)
A biographical sketch of the San Francisco engineer best known for his work on the controversial dam built in Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy valley.
"Technology and the Environment: The Historians' Challenge"
with Joel A. Tarr. Environmental History Review 18 (Spring 1994): 1–7.
Reflections on the research opportunities that exist for those historians willing to analyze the interconnections between technology and the natural environment.
“Me, Myself and Infrastructure: Private Lives and Public Works in America, at the National Building Museum, Washington, D. C.”
Technology and Culture 44 (October 2003): 778–85.
An evaluation of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ sesquicentennial exhibition, which explores the profound—and frequently unappreciated—contributions of public works to the functioning of modern society.