Prisoners of Myth (eBook)

The Leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933-1990

Erwin C. Hargrove (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF | EPUB

1994
392 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-2153-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Erwin C. Hargrove is Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University.

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Prisoners of Myth is the first comprehensive history of the Tennessee Valley Authority from its creation to the present day. It is also a telling case study of organizational evolution and decline. Building on Philip Selznick's classic work TVA and the Grass Roots (1949), a seminal text in the theoretical study of bureaucracy, Erwin Hargrove analyzes the organizational culture of the TVA by looking at the actions of its leaders over six decades--from the heroic years of the New Deal and World War II through the postwar period of consolidation and growth to the time of troubles from 1970 onward, when the TVA ran afoul of environmental legislation, built a massive nuclear power program that it could not control, and sought new missions for which there were no constituencies.The founding myth of multipurpose regional development was inappropriately pursued in the 1970s and '80s by leaders who became "e;prisoners of myth"e; in their attempt to keep the TVA heroic. A decentralized organization, which had worked well at the grass roots, was difficult to redirect as the nuclear genii spun out of control. TVA autonomy from Washington, once a virtue, obscured political accountability. This study develops an important new theory about institutional performance in the face of historical change.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 8.8.1994
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in American Politics
• Reihe/Serie: Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, International, and Comparative Perspectives
• Verlagsort: Princeton
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► 20. Jahrhundert bis 1945
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Kulturgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: Accountability • activism • adventurism • Agricultural Adjustment Administration • Agriculture • Air Pollution • Board of Directors • Budget • Career • carpetbagger • chairman • Chapter 9 • Charles Dean • chief engineer • Clean Coal • Corrective and preventive action • Criticism • curtailment • Customer • debt limit • decentralization • Demonstration farm • Disenchantment • distrust • Douglas Dam • Economic Development • Economic planning • Economics • electricity • Electric Power • Employment • energy conservation • energy crisis • Engineering • Environmentalist • Externality • Fertilizer • forestry • General Counsel • George W. Norris • Governance • Great Society • Howard Baker • Ideology • Institute of Nuclear Power Operations • Institution • Jimmy Carter • Job Security • John F. Kennedy • Leave of absence • Louis Brownlow • Management System • Martin Van Buren • National policy • national security • natural resource • New Departure (Democrats) • Norman Wengert • Norris Dam • Nuclear power • nuclear reactor • Nuclear Regulatory Commission • of education • Office of Management and Budget • One Unit • Organizational Culture • political machine • Political Science • Politician • Politics • Pork barrel • Progressivism in the United States • public administration • Quality assurance • Ralph Nader • Reactionary • Realism (international relations) • Red Tape • Regional Development • Regional Planning • Requirement • Rexford Tugwell • Rotary International • S. David Freeman • Second Source • Sherman Adams • slowdown • Strategic Planning • Symbolic Power • Synthetic Fuels Corporation • technocracy • Technology • Tellico Dam • Tennessee Valley Authority • Uncertainty • United States Army Corps of Engineers • war effort • Wendell Willkie • Whistleblower • Works Progress Administration
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-2153-3 / 1400821533
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-2153-2 / 9781400821532