Rivers by Design

O'Neill Karen M. O'Neill

Description

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.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• Flood control
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 03 mai 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822387862
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Rivers by Design

d u k e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s

Durham & London 2006

karen m. o’neill

Riversby Design

state power and the origins

of u.s. flood control

∫2006 Duke University Press

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper$

Designed by C. H. Westmoreland

Typeset in Scala with Arepo display by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear

on the last printed page of this book.

forAlex andEvan

Contents

Tables and Mapsix Prefacexi Acknowledgmentsxxi

IRivers and State Authority 1 Chapter 1.3Infrastructure Builds the State Chapter 2.The Founding Principles of River Development

IIRegional Competition and the Rise of the Flood Control Campaign 27

13

Chapter 3.The Mississippi River:Becoming the Nation’s River Chapter 4.The Mississippi River:Resentment Leading to Civil War43 Chapter 5.The Mississippi River:Postwar Reunification, Postwar Aid56 Chapter 6.The Sacramento River:Miners versus Farmers68 Chapter 7.The Sacramento River:Capitalists Unify for Development80

III97Redesigning Rivers in the National Interest Chapter 8.Federal Aid for the Mississippi and Sacramento Rivers 99 Chapter 9.The Fully Designed River 128 Chapter 10.150A Nationwide Program for Flood Control Chapter 11.179Rivers by Design

31

Appendix 1.Mississippi Valley River Improvement Conventions Appendix 2.Mississippi River Levee Association, Executive Committee 197 Notes199 Bibliography243 Index265

187

Tables and Maps

tabl e 1. Origins of Flood Control Activism: Similarities and Di√erences 28

tabl e 2187. Mississippi Valley River Improvement Conventions

map 1. Mississippi Valley 33

map 2. Sacramento Valley 70

map 3133. Lower Mississippi Valley