&i;`This is an important study of the United States in the nineteenth century....Thorough, nuanced, and vividly written, its primary concern is with the ongoing conflict between an entrenched bureaucracy committed to state planning and to its own view of science and those who have, over the years, criticized the Corps of Engineers for its elitism, failed systems, and monumental arrogance and extravagance. A true merit of this book is its ability to trace the dual nature of the corps--seen both as an efficient agency capable of transforming the nation's waterways and as an arrogant, mismanaged threat to the ecology.. ..An excellent and readable book that deserves a wide audience.'&o; Journal of American History