History of Efforts to Modify the Weather

FAIN: FB-53252-07

Kristine C. Harper
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (Socorro, NM 87801-4681)

Global temperatures are rising. So are drought concerns. Is it time to turn the atmosphere into the ultimate, controllable water reservoir? Weather control is not a new idea—it’s been around since the 19th century—but it was not transformed into a scientific state tool until the mid-twentieth century. "Weather by Design" will examine the shift from pre-World War II charlatan-centered “rainmaking” to postwar state controlled weapon, diplomatic tool, and “water-barrel” politics in America. It will explore the intersection of science, technology, and the environment, providing accessible historical context to scholars, policy makers, and general audiences pondering the limits of the technological fix.

Associated Products

Make It Rain: State Control of the Atmosphere in Twentieth-Century America (Book)
Title: Make It Rain: State Control of the Atmosphere in Twentieth-Century America
Author: Kristine C. Harper
Abstract: In Make It Rain, Kristine C. Harper tells the long and somewhat absurd history of state-funded attempts to manage, manipulate, and deploy the weather in America. Harper shows that governments from the federal to the local became helplessly captivated by the idea that weather control could promote agriculture, health, industrial output, and economic growth at home, or even be used as a military weapon and diplomatic tool abroad.
Year: 2017
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978022643723-1
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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