Publications
The list of selected staff publications may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.
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.
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.
A collection of essays addressing the history of tunnels and tunneling from ancient times to the present, including discussions of the politics and construction of the Channel Tunnel and the ill-fated Super-conducting Super Collider. This richly illustrated volume also includes a detailed account of the Smithsonian’s Tunnels! exhibition.
Examines the various ways in which the U.S. Congress has used hearings to receive, question, and debate scientific and technical information.
A historical assessment of President Jimmy Carter’s environmental record. Recipient of the Society for History in the Federal Govern-ment’s 1999 Charles Thomson Prize.
A discussion of two prize-winning documentaries—Kelly Duane’s Monumental: David Brower’s Fight for Wild America and Bonnie Kreps’s Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story—and the contributions of film biographies to the teaching of environmental history.
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.
A review essay of Orrin H. Pilkey and Katherine L. Dixon’s critique of coastal engineering and beach restoration, The Corps and the Shore.
Reflections on the expansion and internationalization of environmental justice as a field of study.
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.
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 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.
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.
A compilation of works addressing the history of U.S. federal agency efforts to advance scientific research since World War II.
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.
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 study of how engineering changed from a craft-oriented occupation to a professional occupation in the United States during the nineteenth century.
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.
A brief history of the world’s largest engineering organization and how its missions have evolved in accord with shifting public values.
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.
