Imaging Hoover Dam

“Arrigo’s Imaging Hoover Dam makes an important contribution to the field of visual rhetoric. The author’s arguments are clear and insightful. Both scholars and general readers in American cultural studies will enjoy this fascinating account of the making of a major icon of industrial modernism.” —Carole Blair, Professor of communication studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

“Hoover Dam is not only a physical structure; it is also a powerful cultural symbol. Anthony F. Arrigo offers an archivally rich, visually comprehensive treatment of how the dam was depicted before, during, and after its construction. Conceptually informed by theories from rhetoric and visual culture studies, his critical analyses of government photographs, maps, advertisements, art, and other visual imagery illustrate how the production, reproduction, and circulation of images contributed to the dam’s iconicity. A key strength is his sensitive attention to the ways in which images of the Hoover Dam communicate complex ideas about nature, culture, labor, race, gender, sexuality, nation, and citizenship. His work will be of immense value to scholars of visual culture and rhetoric, the history of the U.S. West, and the complex relationships between nature and technology.” —Cara A. Finnegan, author of Picturing Poverty: Print Culture and FSA Photographs and coeditor of Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and American Culture

“In Imaging Hoover Dam, Anthony Arrigo shows how government and business used photographs to shape public opinion, while the difficult living and working conditions of laborers and racial discrimination in hiring remained private, untold stories.” —Jerrie Clarke, director, Lost City Museum, Overton, Nevada

"The author's innovative approach leads readers to a deeper understanding of the work of images as discursive tools that significantly shape the construction of public knowledge." —Journal of American History

"Arrigo achieves a fitting memorial to those who labored and lost to build a world wonder."—Rhetoric & Public Affairs

“Well chosen illustrations enhance Arrigo’s thorough analysis of the visual and rhetorical devices central to the imaging of the Hoover Dam. His approach is imaginative, thoroughly-researched, and supported by convincing theoretical constructs, Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Icon is an excellent contribution not only to the understanding of the dam itself, but more broadly in its position as a resonant artifact of the American West and national identity.” —The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage ~The International Committee for the Conservation of Industrial Heritage

“Arrigo’s focus on perception and his overt use of well-articulated theoretical structures makes his work an ideal model for practitioners and students of public history . . .” —The Public Historian ~The Public Historian

“For environmental historians, Imaging Hoover Dam makes a useful addition to a growing body of work about dams, electric power, and the transformation of the western landscape. Arrigo takes the reader on an intriguing journey through the archives and out into the canyons of the Southwest to 'see' the dam in new ways.” —Environmental History
  ~Julie Cohn, Environmental History

"Anyone interested in the history of the hydraulic West will find Imaging Hoover Dam to be an engaging and thought-provoking read." —Western Historical Quarterly ~Donald C. Jackson, Western Historical Quarterly