320 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Unfortunately, the author was limited by the paucity of biographical information on many of the technological Utopians, particularly the more eccentric and intriguing ones. Segal has identified forty works by his twenty-five authors as the exemplars of technological utopianism, ranging from speeches to nov els published during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Segal readily admits that the literary quality of most of these works is not high and that few ofthem (except Edward Bellamy’s LookingBackward) were widely read. He is thus in the awkward position of defending the historical significance of technological utopianism while admitting that it was a relatively marginal element of popular culture. His de fense is based largely on the assertion that the visions of the Utopians may be used to illuminate more important trends in American society. Indeed, the technological Utopians and their writings are quickly dis posed of in the first few chapters, and most of the remainder of the book is devoted to the broader social and cultural context. This may not convince the reader that technological utopianism is a significant element of American culture, but Segal does succeed in using the concept to organize some interesting material on attitudes toward technology of European and American intellectuals and on American social trends such as scientific management, the conservation move ment, and technocracy. These chapters (4, 5, and 6) would make good readings for courses in history of technology, history of ideas, or American studies. That the book is attractively illustrated and available in paperback will undoubtedly facilitate classroom use. The endnotes—over seventy-five pages of them—constitute a small book in themselves and contain useful glosses and plentiful references on subjects ranging from urban reform to the history of the word “technology.” David J. Rhees Dr. Rhees is assistant librarian for research and programs at the American Philo sophical Society. TVA and the Tellico Dam 1936-1979: A Bureaucratic Crisis in Post-Industrial America. By William Bruce Wheeler and Michael J. McDonald. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986. Pp. xii + 290; illus trations, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. $34.50. This award-winning account of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s troubled Tellico Dam project, best remembered for threatening the fish called snail darter, deserves its accolades. Thoroughly researched and well written, it traces the project history from initial planning through advanced engineering to completion, focusing on the at tending political controversies, litigation, and project management, TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 321 or, as the authors might prefer, mismanagement. It is an excellent case study of recent transitions in American water resources policies and features Justice William O. Douglas and other people of national stature who also stirred the waters at various projects throughout the nation. First planned during the Depression and funded during the afflu ent 1960s, the Tellico project in east Tennessee had opposition chiefly from landowners in the reservoir area until construction began, when environmental preservationists and university faculty and students from the urban Knoxville area sought to stop construction on grounds of violations of the National Historical Preservation, National Envi ronmental Policy, and Endangered Species acts, all enacted after proj ect construction had begun. Litigation slowed construction, and although the Supreme Court stopped the project to protect snail dart ers as an endangered species, Tennessee congressmen obtained leg islation exempting the project from the Endangered Species Act, and it was completed in 1979. The TVA has broader authorities than other water resources agencies, but its experiences at the Tellico project mirror events at many reservoir projects nationwide; and while the authors used the Tellico project only as a microcosm for the history ofTVA, it also reflects the recently troubled history of American water resources development in general. Though it is a comprehensive analysis of water resources policies and executive planning and management within TVA, the text could have been improved with some discussion of the project’s technolog ical features. The completed dam is a striking, interesting engineering design and its field construction must have been challenging, but the authors never venture below the executive level to mention the people who designed and built the dam and how they applied engineering...