Term paper on Tennessee Valley Authority

Tennessee Valley Authority

RESOURCE GUIDE

The origins of TVA date back to the 1920s and the debate over public versus private development and ownership of the nation’s power facilities. A radical New Deal measure, the creation of the TVA in May 1933 was intended to harness for public benefit the power of the Tennessee River , which cut through seven southern states. Multipurpose in goals, the TVA offered jobs, provided inexpensive fertilizers, improved and built dams, reforested depleted areas, and, most controversially, provided cheap public electricity to compete with more costly private power.
Suggestions for Term Papers

1. Analyze the Muscle Shoals ( Alabama ) project controversy of the 1920s.

2. Discuss the reaction of private utility companies to the establishment of the TVA.

3. Discuss the reaction to presidential candidate Barry Goldwater’s suggestion in 1964 to privatize the TVA.

4. Compare the original TVA with today’s TVA.

5. Discuss the long-range effects of the TVA.

Suggested Sources : See entry 32 for related items.

GENERAL SOURCES

Durant, Robert F. When Government Regulates Itself: EPA, TVA, and Pollution Control in the 1970s . Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, 1985. Brief examination of the activity of both the Environmental Protection Agency and the TVA in combating pollution in line with government legislation.

SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Callahan, North. TVA: Bridge over Troubled Waters . South Brunswick , NJ : A. S. Barnes, 1980. Well-written history of the TVA describing its obstacles and its progressive growth and development.

Chandler, William U. The Myth of TVA: Conservation and Development in the Tennessee Valley, 1933–1983 . Cambridge , MA : Ballinger, 1984. Well-written and popular, somewhat revisionist history of the TVA. The myth was its alleged design to assist the small farmer rather than the large farm organizations that actually benefited most.

Colignon, Richard A. Power Plays: Critical Events in the Institutionalization of the Tennessee Valley Authority . Albany : State University of New York Press, 1997. Historical treatment of events in the development of TVA as an electric utility and government corporation.

Grant, Nancy . TVA and Black Americans: Planning for the Status Quo . Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1990. Interesting history of the employment and relocation of African Americans in accordance with the requirements of the TVA.

Hargrove, E. C. Prisoners of Myth: The Leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933–1990 . Princeton , NJ : Princeton University Press, 1994. Comprehensive history of the TVA from its beginnings to the present. Examines the effectiveness of its leaders over time.

———, and Paul K. Conkin, eds. TVA, Fifty Years of Grass-roots Bureaucracy . Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1983. Contains papers drawn from a symposium held at Vanderbilt University covering history, management, activity, image, and public interest issues.

Hodge, Clarence L. The Tennessee Valley Authority: A National Experiment in Regionalism . (1938). Reprint. New York : Russell&Russell, 1968. Early examination of the TVA, written five years after its creation.

Hubbard, Preston J. Origins of the TVA: The Muscle Shoals Controversy, 1920–1932 . Nashville , TN : Vanderbilt University Press, 1961. Indepth description of the Muscle Shoals situation leading to the creation of the TVA.

Lilienthal, David E. TVA: Democracy on the March . (1953). Reprint. Westport , CT : Greenwood , 1977. Noncritical treatment of the agency by one of its leaders. Reprint of a publication commemorating the TVA’s twentieth anniversary.

McCraw, Thomas K. TVA and the Power Fight, 1933–1939 . Philadelphia : Lippincott, 1971. Provides insight into the nature of the struggle for power within a critical six-year period. (See McCraw in ‘‘Biographical Sources” below.)

McDonald, Michael J., and John Muldowny. TVA and the Dispossessed: The Resettlement of Population in the Norris Dam Area . Knoxville : University of Tennessee Press, 1982. Detailed look at the relocation of poor people in the Norris Lake region as part of the TVA’s program.

Neal, Harry E. The People’s Giant: The Story of TVA. New York : J. Messer, 1970. Brief, easy-to-read, laudatory description of the history, accomplishments, and importance of the TVA.

Nurick, Aaron J. Participation in Organizational Change: The TVA Experiment . New York : Praeger, 1985. Description of certain aspects of progressive management attempted at the TVA, with case studies of employee participation and perceived benefits.

Owen, Marguerite. The Tennessee Valley Authority . New York : Praeger, 1973. Straightforward description of the TVA—its development and its activity.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

McCraw, Thomas K. Morgan vs. Lilienthal: The Feud within the TVA . Chicago : Loyola University Press, 1970. Treats the careers of the two leaders and their professional disagreement. (See McCraw in ‘‘Specialized Sources” above.)

Talbert, Roy. FDR’s Utopian: Arthur Morgan of the TVA . Jackson : University of Mississippi Press, 1987. Informative biography of one of the TVA’s leaders. Part of the Twentieth-century America series.

AUDIOVISUAL SOURCES

Tennessee Valley Authority . New York : A&E Home Video. 1997. Videocassette. Part of the twenty-three-volume Modern Marvels: Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century Series examining the stories of the construction of great engineering wonders. 50 minutes.

WORLD WIDE WEB

‘‘From the New Deal to a New Century: A Short History of TVA.” TVA . 1997; updated 1998. http:/www.tva.gov/whatis/history.htm Informative historical sketch along with photographs.