Engineering Nature
Water, Development, and the Global Spread of American Environmental Expertise
Jessica B. Teisch
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 02/2011
Pages: 272
Subject: Science, History, Technology and Engineering
| University of North Carolina
Print ISBN: 9.78E+12
eBook ISBN: 9780807878019
DESCRIPTION
Engineering Nature explores how controlling the vagaries of nature abroad required more than the export of blueprints for dams, canals, or mines; it also entailed the problematic transfer of the new technology's sociopolitical context. Water engineers confronted unforeseen variables in each region as they worked to implement their visions of agrarian settlement and industrial growth, including the role of the market, government institutions, property rights, indigenous peoples, labor, and, not last, the environment. Teisch argues that by examining the successes and failures of various projects as American influence spread, we can see the complex role of globalization at work, often with incredibly disproportionate results.