Open Access Edition of Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil by Eve E. Buckley

FAIN: DR-290431-23

University of North Carolina Press, Inc. (Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2288)
Mark Simpson-Vos (Project Director: July 2022 to September 2023)

This project will publish the book Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil, written by NEH Fellow Eve E. Buckley (Federal Award Identification Number FT-62004-14), in an electronic open access format under a Creative Commons license, making it available for free download and distribution. The author will be paid a royalty of at least $500 upon release of the open access ebook.

Associated Products

Single Publication (Open Access eBook or Collection)
Publication Type: Single Publication
Title: Technocrats and the Politics of Drought and Development in Twentieth-Century Brazil
Year: 2017
ISBN: 9781469634319
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Author: Eve E. Buckley
Abstract: Eve E. Buckley’s study of twentieth-century Brazil examines the nation’s hard social realities through the history of science, focusing on the use of technology and engineering as vexed instruments of reform and economic development. Nowhere was the tension between technocratic optimism and entrenched inequality more evident than in the drought-ridden Northeast sertão, plagued by chronic poverty, recurrent famine, and mass migrations. Buckley reveals how the physicians, engineers, agronomists, and mid-level technocrats working for federal agencies to combat drought were pressured by politicians to seek out a technological magic bullet that would both end poverty and obviate the need for land redistribution to redress long-standing injustices. Scientists planned and oversaw huge projects including dam construction, irrigation for small farmers, and public health initiatives. They were, Buckley shows, sincerely determined to solve the drought crisis and improve the lot of poor people in the sertão. Over time, however, they came to the frustrating realization that, despite technology’s tantalizing promise of an apolitical means to end poverty, political collisions among competing stakeholders were inevitable. Buckley’s revelations about technocratic hubris, the unexpected consequences of environmental engineering, and constraints on scientists as agents of social change resonate with today’s hopes that science and technology can solve society’s most pressing dilemmas, including climate change.
Primary URL: https://worldcat.org/title/1032363615
Primary URL Description: Worldcat
Secondary URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469634319_buckley
Secondary URL Description: JSTOR
URL 3: https://www.amazon.com/Technocrats-Politics-Drought-Development-Twentieth-Century-ebook/dp/B06Y3TMGCP/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1501614531&sr=1-1&keywords=technocrats
URL 3 Description: Kindle
Type: Single author monograph

Prizes

Humanities Book Award
Date: 1/1/2018
Organization: Brazil Section of the Latin American Studies Association

Warren Dean Memorial Prize, Honorable Mention
Date: 1/1/2018
Organization: Conference on Latin American History

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