Engineering Expansion: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860 - with Dr. William D. Adler
Channel: NEIU Libraries
Date: 2022-03-24

On Monday, February 28 the NEIU Libraries hosted a virtual conversation with Dr. William D. Adler, author of the 2021 book Engineering Expansion: The U.S. Army and Economic Development, 1787-1860.

Published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, Engineering Expansion examines the U.S. Army's role in U.S. economic development from the nation's founding to the eve of the Civil War. William D. Adler starts with a simple question: if the federal government was weak in its early years, how could the economy and the nation have grown so rapidly?

Adler answers this question by focusing on the strongest part of the early American state, the U.S. Army. The Army shaped the American economy through its coercive actions in conquering territory, expanding the nation's borders, and maintaining public order and the rule of law. It built roads, bridges, and railroads while Army engineers and ordnance officers developed new technologies, constructed forts that encouraged western settlement and nurtured nascent communities, cleared rivers, and created manufacturing innovations that spread throughout the private sector. Politicians fought for control of the Army, but War Department bureaucracies also contributed to their own development by shaping the preferences of elected officials.

Engineering Expansion synthesizes a wide range of historical material and will be of interest to those interested in early America, military history, and politics in the early United States.

Dr. William D. Adler is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northeastern Illinois University where he teaches classes on American politics. He has authored over a dozen scholarly articles on topics ranging from American political development to the Trump presidency, and he also contributes frequently to popular media outlets like NBC News and WGN.

During this event, Dr. Adler was interviewed by Dr. Joshua Salzmann, Associate Professor of History at Northeastern Illinois University. Dr. Salzmann teaches classes on the history of cities, the environment, and crime and violence in the United States. His book, Liquid Capital: Making the Chicago Waterfront, examines how policymakers and business leaders forged public-private partnerships to create a landscape conducive to capital accumulation—and, in the process, set powerful precedents for environmental protection and regulation of industry.