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
The list of selected staff publications may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.
“Beach Preservation Washout.”
Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 13 (Fall 1998): 107–108.
"A Sense of Place: Donald Worster’s Dust Bowl."
Technology and Culture 48 (April 2007): 377–85.
“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.
"Scientific Instrumentation as an Element of U.S. Science Policy: National Science Foundation Support of Chemistry Instrumentation."
In Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions, and Science, edited by Robert Bud and Susan E. Cozzens, 238–63. Bellingham, Wash.: SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992.
A history of the U.S. government’s support of chemistry instrumentation, 1950–1990.
"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.
“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.
“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.
"Knowledge Collaborations in the Arts, the Sciences, and the Humanities: Edited Excerpts from a Smithsonian Seminar Series—Part 2: The Sciences."
Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization 13 (June 1992): 399–406.
A historical overview of the patterns of collaboration among investigators in different fields of science and how federal science policy has attempted to account for those changes.
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.
“Technical Advice for Congress: Past Trends and Present Obstacles”
with Bruce L. R. Smith. In Science and Technology Advice for Congress, edited by M. Granger Morgan and Jon M. Peha, 23–52. Washington: RFF Press, 2003.
An examination of the U. S. Congress’s evolving need for scientific and technical advice, the inherent difficulties in fulfilling this need, and a historical assessment of the mechanisms put in place to provide the legislative branch with independent technical counsel.
“Placing Environmental History on Display.”
Environmental History 7 (October 2002): 566–88.
Discusses how and why environmental history should be integrated into exhibitions developed at both cultural and scientific institutions. The essay is a revised version of the author’s presidential address before the American Society for Environmental History.
"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.
"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.
“The Green House.”
Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 15 (Fall 2000): 113–14.
A review essay of Dennis L. Soden’s edited book, The Environmental Presidency, which deals with the changing attitudes and actions toward natural resources among America’s chief executives.
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.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Issues in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography.
with Michael C. Robinson, eds. Environmental History Series. Washington: GPO, 1984.
A compilation of books, articles, government reports, newspaper stories, and unpublished items that address the environmental implications of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works and regulatory activities.
“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.
“George Washington Goethals.”
In American National Biography, vol. 9, 163–65. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
A biographical sketch of the civil engineer best known for his work on the Panama Canal.
"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.
"Regulating Wetlands in the 1970s: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Organizations."
Journal of Forest History 27 (April 1983): 60–75.
A history of how the federal government came to regulate the destruction of wetlands in the United States and the unsuccessful efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restrict the new police responsibilities entrusted to it. Recipient of the Forest History Society’s 1984 Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Award.
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.
"Russell G. Cone."
In Dictionary of American Biography, supplement 7, 135–36. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981.
A biographical sketch of the civil engineer involved in the design and construction of several major suspension bridges in the United States, including San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
"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.
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