The Garden in the Machine : Planning and Democracy in the Tennessee Valley Authority (Midcentury)

The Tennessee Valley Authority was the largest single agency created under the auspices of the New Deal legislation. Until 1933, when the project was initiated, the Tennessee Valley was known romantically as "a region of untapped potential" and, less romantically, as one of the most impoverished and isolated areas of the country. The TVA was responsible for three large scale environmental projects – the river, land, and power machines – but the project also had social, even utopian, goals. In service to the latter, the TVA put together a cadre of regional planners, architects and landscape architects that Avigail Sachs calls the "atelier TVA." These professionals contributed to the design of the system of multi-purpose dams, arranged visitors centers and scenic routes, built housing and communities (although both were segregated) and instigated a regional recreation industry. In addition to its planning and design history audience, this volume will be of interest to environmental historians and historians of the Progressive Era.