Original in its contribution, persuasive in its argument, and elegant in its design, this is a highly impressive work. Pritchard outlines the interconnections among technology, environment, and society in a systematic and coherent way. Her innovative treatment of the Rhone develops the 'envirotechnical' approach into a mature, sophisticated, and powerfully compelling analytical tool. A superb piece of scholarship and a remarkable accomplishment. -- Michael D. Bess, author of The Light-Green Society: Ecology and Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000 Pritchard has written an outstanding interdisciplinary study of the efforts to manage the Rhone River since 1945. In so doing, she provides the reader with a perceptive model of the 'envirotech' approach toward understanding complex phenomena involving technology and society. -- Joel Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University Pritchard has recovered the fascinating story of France's massive, half-century mobilization of state-of-the-art technological and ecological know-how in transforming the nation's largest river - the unruly Rhone - into a futuristic valley of economic productivity and recreational pleasure. -- Leo Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sara B. Pritchard is Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University.
Original in its contribution, persuasive in its argument, and
elegant in its design, this is a highly impressive work. Pritchard
outlines the interconnections among technology, environment, and
society in a systematic and coherent way. Her innovative treatment
of the Rhone develops the 'envirotechnical' approach into a mature,
sophisticated, and powerfully compelling analytical tool. A superb
piece of scholarship and a remarkable accomplishment.
*Michael D. Bess, author of The Light-Green Society: Ecology and
Technological Modernity in France, 1960-2000*
Pritchard has written an outstanding interdisciplinary study of the
efforts to manage the Rhône River since 1945. In so doing, she
provides the reader with a perceptive model of the 'envirotech'
approach toward understanding complex phenomena involving
technology and society.
*Joel Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University*
Pritchard has recovered the fascinating story of France's massive,
half-century mobilization of state-of-the-art technological and
ecological know-how in transforming the nation's largest river –
the unruly Rhone – into a futuristic valley of economic
productivity and recreational pleasure.
*Leo Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology*
Pritchard examines how the development of the Rhône River has been
integral to the modernization of post-WW II France...Expertly
linking ecology and technology to the political and cultural
history of France, Pritchard illustrates how the Rhône is
emblematic of the processes through which "technologies and
strategies of environmental management materialized France as a
nation in the territorial space declared within its borders." To
this end, the importance of the river's value in areas such as
hydroelectricity, agriculture, nuclear energy, and industrialism
went well beyond the economic realm. Instead, these uses were
derived from discursive and material visions at the very core of
national identity and the project of nation building.
*Choice*
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