APWA: Using history to advance appreciation of public works Jeffrey K. Stine, Ph.D. Chair and Curator National Museum of American History – Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Past President, Public Works Historical Society he bookends of APWA’s 75th anniversary—the Great Depression and the Great Recession—prompt some reflections on both the “public” dimensions of public works and the importance of history to that discussion. America has succeeded in part because Americans learned how to work collectively and collaboratively, through governmental bodies, to advance, sustain, and protect the country. National defense, transportation networks, water and waste-disposal systems, flood control, recreational facilities, and environmental protection are among the many activities rooted in public works. That is to say, they are functions serving the common good and achieved through collective action.
by changing perceptions of the meaning and value attributed to the word “public.” As historian Richard White has argued: “What is and should be public, and what is and should be private—that is, what is public business and what is none of the public’s business—is one of the great elemental contests of the Republic.” It is a fundamental tension in society. Disparagement of the very concept of “public” threatens to make it difficult for the profession to contribute to society’s betterment in the ways and to the extent that might otherwise happen.
role played by public works in the development of the United States, and because the impending bicentennial celebrations were encouraging such self-reflection by all professions, APWA decided to confront the image problem directly by commissioning a comprehensive history of the nation’s public works. That book—History of Public Works in the United States, 17761976, edited by Ellis L. Armstrong, Michael C. Robinson and Suellen M. Hoy—proved highly influential and its success helped propel APWA’s newly established entity, the Public Works Historical Society (PWHS).
For that reason, it is useful to recall how the Association confronted a similar erosion of support forty years ago. Because historians were all too frequently overlooking the critical
The wide range of PWHS activities has included sponsoring historical sessions at APWA’s annual Congresses, producing a newsletter and Essays in Public Works History series, providing
And yet, today, popular opinions about the appropriate role of government—of the very concept of “public”—could hardly be more different than when APWA was founded. In 1937, public works was used with enthusiasm to rejuvenate and expand the physical infrastructure so necessary to society’s short- and long-term functioning and prosperity. In the context of those dire economic times, public works assumed a highly positive social position, earning it a prominent place within the broader New Deal initiative. And APWA contributed to that effort as a catalyst for professionalism. Now the Association celebrates its anniversary in the midst of a widespread debate over support for public enterprises and is confronted 86 APWA Reporter
June 2012
An early twentieth-century brass pavement marker on display in the Smithsonian’s popular “America on the Move” exhibition
