What
Scholars Have to Say about
BUILDING THE ULTIMATE
DAM
"Building the Ultimate Dam is a fresh, lucid, and original book
about the interrelationship of
technology, capitalism, and politics. Donald C. Jackson wisely treats
the technology as an expresssion of culture, arguing that there are no
'objective' dam designs predestined to triumph in the engineering
marketplace. This is an important addition to the history of
technology, engineering, and water -- in the nation as well as the American
West."
--Donald J. Pisani, author of To Reclaim a Divided
West: Water, Law, and Public Policy, 1848-1902 and From the Family
Farm to Agribusiness: The Irrigation Crusade in California and the West,
1850-1931
Dr. Pisani is Professor of History at the University of Oklahoma
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"Neither `pro-dam' nor `anti-dam' in a polemic sense, this book
offers a
thoughtful, carefully researched discussion of water storage technologies in
early 20th century. As Jackson describes, final decisions on dam projects
only came after intense complex interplay among a few score professionals --
engineers, businessman, and bureaucrats -- who operated on a level far removed
from the general public. In all, a superb book that makes a major contribution
to the field."
--Norris Hundley, author of The Great Thirst: Californians and
Water, 1770s-1990s
Dr. Hundley is Professor of History at UCLA, a past-President of the
Western History Association
and long-time editor of the Pacific Historical Review
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"A wonderfully researched and illustrated book that describes better
than I have ever seen how consulting engineers work -- the way plans are
developed, dams built, and a clientele established. Jackson makes us
aware of the overwhelming importance of private capital in the pre-New
Deal American West."
--Bruce Sinclair,author of A Centennial History of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers
Dr. Sinclair is Professor of
History at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a past-President of
the Society for the History of Technology
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"Complementing standard studies like Donald Worster's Rivers of
Empire and Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert, which concentrate
on the role of federal agencies in western water development, Jackson
provides an
intriguing study of how personal and social factors can override rational
scientific analysis -- and even market forces -- to block the introduction
of a seemingly superior technology."
--Terry Reynolds, editor of The Engineer in America: A Historical
Anthology from Technology and Culture and author of Stronger Than
a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Waterwheel
Dr.
Reynolds is Professor of History at Michigan Technological University and
Book Review Editor of IA: The Journal of the Society for Industrial
Archeology
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"This is a pioneering book which illustrates both the history of western
water resources development and the more central role of engineering in
the transformation of nature and society. Particularly dramatic
is Jackson's presentation of the confrontation between Eastwood,
a western outsider, and John R. Freeman, a major figure in the
eastern engineering establishment of the early early 20th century....
Building the Ultimate Dam brings both the
general reader and the engineer into close touch with the disappointments
and exhilirations that always surround structural innovation in the
modern world"
--David P. Billington, author of The Tower and the Bridge: The
New Art
of Structural Engineering
Dr. Billington is Professor of
Engineering at Princeton University
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"Jackson's focus on the life of John S. Eastwood explodes the myth of
engineers being wed to scientific objectivity and economic efficiency.
His profile of Eastwood reveals a man who encountered the irrational
wrath and hindrance of prominent engineers such as John R. Freeman, who at
every turn opposed Eastwood's vision and the daring designs encompassed
in his multiple arch dams. Jackson underscores Eastwood's artistry, not
only his science, and how his adherance to the ideals of "Structural
Art" fell prey to conservative preferences for traditional gravity dam
design. In addition, his interpretation also underscores the forces of
localism in the history of water development in the West.... This
clearly written, well-researched, and interesting work will certainly
rank high among the notable water histories of the American West."
-- James E. Sherow, author of Watering the Valley: Development
Along the High Plains of the Arkansas River
Dr. Sherow is Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University
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