Rivers by Design

State Power and the Origins of U.S. Flood Control

Autor: O'Neill, Karen M.
Editor: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822337607
eISBN Pdf: 9780822387862
Lugar de publicación: Durham , Estados Unidos
Año de publicación digital: 2006
Mes: Mayo
Páginas: 304
DDC: 363.34/9360973
Idioma: Ingles

Descripción

The United States has one of the largest and costliest flood control systems in the world, even though only a small proportion of its land lies in floodplains. Rivers by Design traces the emergence of the mammoth U.S. flood management system, which is overseen by the federal government but implemented in conjunction with state governments and local contractors and levee districts. Karen M. O’Neill analyzes the social origins of the flood control program, showing how the system initially developed as a response to the demands of farmers and the business elite in outlying territories. The configuration of the current system continues to reflect decisions made in the nineteenth century and early twentieth. It favors economic development at the expense of environmental concerns.

O’Neill focuses on the creation of flood control programs along the lower Mississippi River and the Sacramento River, the first two rivers to receive federal flood control aid. She describes how, in the early to mid-nineteenth century, planters, shippers, and merchants from both regions campaigned for federal assistance with flood control efforts. She explains how the federal government was slowly and reluctantly drawn into water management to the extent that, over time, nearly every river in the United States was reengineered. Her narrative culminates in the passage of the national Flood Control Act of 1936, which empowered the Army Corps of Engineers to build projects for all navigable rivers in conjunction with local authorities, effectively ending nationwide, comprehensive planning for the protection of water resources.

Contents
Tables and Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I: Rivers and State Authority
- Infrastructure Builds the State
- The Founding Principles of River Development
Part II: Regional Competition and the Rise of the Flood Control Campaign
- The Mississippi River: Becoming the Nation’s River
- The Mississippi River: Resentment Leading to Civil War
- The Mississippi River: Postwar Reunification, Postwar Aid
- The Sacramento River: Miners versus Farmers
- The Sacramento River: Capitalists Unify for Development
Part III: Redesigning Rivers in the National Interest
- Federal Aid for the Mississippi and Sacramento Rivers
- The Fully Designed River
- A Nationwide Program for Flood Control
- Rivers by Design
Appendix 1. Mississippi Valley River Improvement Conventions
Appendix 2. Mississippi River Levee Association, Executive Committee
Notes
Bibliography
Index