Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Icon. By Anthony F. Arrigo.

Abstract

Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Icon . By Anthony F. Arrigo. (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2014. xiv + 297 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.) Hoover Dam (called Boulder Dam from 1933 through 1947) is among the world’s best-known engineering landmarks. At 726 feet tall and containing more than 3 million cubic yards of concrete, the massive curved gravity structure stands (in tandem with Grand Coulee Dam) as the greatest symbol of techno-cultural accomplishment in the twentieth-century American West. Anthony F. Arrigo, an English professor, writes about Hoover Dam through the lens of visual cultural studies, wherein he seeks to explore “how the visual culture of the project worked to establish the … jacksond{at}lafayette.edu