Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Life after death: evidence of the Hoover Dam as a hero project that defends against mortality reminders

  • Published:
Water History Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Dams have historically been constructed as a supply management strategy to control water despite increasingly recognized sociocultural, environmental and financial costs. Current water management strategies continue to depend on technology-based solutions despite these costs. We used a transdisciplinary approach to link water history and social psychology to examine the underlying influences on water decisions such as the construction of large-scale water infrastructure. Specifically, we used indicators from terror management theory—a social psychology framework to understand how humans’ efforts to repress their death awareness influences motivation and behaviour. We focus on symbolic immortality as a powerful way by which people overcome their death fears in a highly individualistic Western and secular society. In this research three interrelated questions. First, was there evidence of mortality salience indicators in discussions of the Hoover Dam? Using the Hoover Dam as a historic case, we identified mortality salience evidence in the public statements during the dam’s pre-construction, construction, and post-construction phases. We found abundant mortality salience in the public statements about the Hoover Dam during all phases. Second, could the Hoover Dam be classified as a legacy project or “hero project” as defined by Ernest Becker and subsequent research through terror management theory? The evidence suggested that the Hoover Dam—as a representative example of the large scale, water infrastructure that dominates our contemporary supply-management regime—might have served as a hero project for those involved in its installation. And third, could the Hoover Dam, and possibly other large dams, be a means to overcompensate for mortality-fears for those involved in their installations, contributing to an environmentally unsustainable but historical water management legacy? Characterising the Hoover dam as not only a water supply infrastructure project but also as a hero project intended to alleviate mortality-fears, offers complementary explanations as to why unsustainable water management decisions were made in the American West.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al Radif A (1999) Integrated water resources management (IWRM): an approach to face the challenges of the next century and to avert future crises. Desalin 124(1–3):145–153. doi:10.1016/S0011-9164(99)00099-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altheide D, Michalowski R (1999) Fear in the news: a discourse of control. Sociol Q 40(3):475–503. doi:10.1111/j.1533-8525.1999.tb01730.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altinbilek D (2002) The role of dams in development. Int J of Water Resour Dev 18(1):9–24. doi:10.1080/0790062022012162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong A, Armstrong M (2006) A Christian perspective on water and water rights. In: Oestigaard T (ed) The world of water, series I, vol III. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 368–384

    Google Scholar 

  • Arndt J, Solomon S (2003) The control of death and the death of control: the effects of mortality salience, neuroticism, and worldview threat on the desire for control. J Res Pers 37(2):1–22. doi:10.1016/S0092-6566(02)00530-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arndt J, Solomon S, Kasser T, Sheldon K (2004) The urge to splurge revisited: further reflections on applying terror management theory to materialism and consumer behavior. J Consum Psychol 14(3):225–229. doi:10.1207/s15327663jcp1403_5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baxter P, Jack S (2008) Qualitative case study methodology: study design and implementation for novice researchers. Qual Rep 13(4):544–559

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker E (1973) The denial of death. Free Press Paperbacks, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Billington DP, Jackson DC (2006) Big dams of the New Deal era: a confluence of engineering and politics. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman

    Google Scholar 

  • Black B (2006) Unity and abstraction: ethics and modernity in the riverine technology of the American New Deal. In: Oestigaard T (ed) The world of water, series I, vol III. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 137–156

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouwer H (2000) Integrated water management: emerging issues and challenges. Agric Water Manag 45(3):217–228. doi:10.1016/S0378-3774(00)00092-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boykoff M, Boykoff J (2004) Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press. Glob Environ Chang Hum Policy Dimens 14(2):125–136. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2003.10.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braemer F, Geyer B, Castel C, Abdulkarim M (2010) Conquest of new lands and water systems in the western fertile crescent (central and southern Syria). Water Hist 2(2):91–114. doi:10.1007/s12685-010-0029-9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryman A, James JT (2005) Social research methods, Canadian edn. Oxford University Press, Don Mills

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Reclamation (2011) Project and facilities database. http://www.usbr.gov/projects/

  • Burke BL, Martens A, Faucher EH (2010) Two decades of terror management theory: a meta-analysis of mortality salience research. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 14(2):155–195. doi:10.1177/1088868309352321

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carey HC (1868) The harmony of interests: agricultural, manufacturing and commercial. Industrial Publisher, Philadelphia, p 123

    Google Scholar 

  • Carey J, Adam G (2009) Communication as culture essays on media and, society Rev edn. Routledge, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Crocker J, Park L (2004) The costly pursuit of self-esteem. Psychol Bull 130(3):392–414. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • D’Souza R (2011) From damming rivers to linking waters: Is this the beginning of the end of supply-side hydrology in India? In: Tvedt T, Chapman G (eds) A history of water, Water and geopolitics in the New World Order, series II, vol III. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 356–373

    Google Scholar 

  • Daigger GT (2009) Evolving urban water and residuals management paradigms: water reclamation and reuse, decentralization, and resource recovery. Water Environ Res 81(8):809–823. doi:10.2175/106143009X425898

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Davou B (2007) Interaction of emotion and cognition in the processing of textual material. Meta 52(1):37–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • del Moral Ituarte L (2010) The hydraulic paradigm and production of a new geography in Spain: origins and historical evolution between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. In: Tvedt T, Coopey R (eds) A history of water, Rivers and society from early civilizations to modern times, series II, vol II. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 440–462

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson JL (2009) The people paradox: self-esteem striving, immortality ideologies, and human response to climate change. Ecol Soc 14(1):34

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickinson JL, Crain R, Yalowitz S, Cherry TM (2013) How framing climate change influences citizen scientists’ intentions to do something about it. J Environ Educ 44(3):145–158. doi:10.1080/00958964.2012.742032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dolan R (2002) Emotion, cognition, and behavior. Science 298(5596):1191–1194. doi:10.1126/science.1076358

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Druckman JN, McDermott R (2008) Emotion and the framing of risky choice. Polit Behav 30(3):297–321. doi:10.1007/s11109-008-9056-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du H, Jonas E, Klackl J, Agroskin D, Hui EKP, Ma L (2013) Cultural influences on terror management: independent and interdependent self-esteem as anxiety buffers. J Exp Soc Psychol 49(6):1002–1011. doi:10.1016/j.jesp2013.06.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duchemin M (2009) Water, power, and tourism: Hoover Dam and the making of the new west. Calif Hist 86(4):60–78, 87–89

  • Evren E (2015) The rise and decline of an anti-dam campaign: Yusufeli dam project and the temporal politics of development. Water Hist 6(4):405–419. doi:10.1007/s12685-014-0120-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fagan B (2011) Elixir: a history of water and humankind. Bloomsbury Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Flores D (1998) Spirit of place and the value of nature in the American west. In: Sherow JE (ed) An environmental history anthology: a sense of the American west. New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, pp 31–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Florian V, Mikulincer M (1998) Symbolic immortality and the management of the terror of death: the moderating role of attachment style. J Pers Soc Psychol 74(3):725–734. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.74.3.725

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fox M, Tost LP, Wade-Benzoni KA (2010) The legacy motive: a catalyst for sustainable decision making in organizations. Bus Ethic Q 20(2):153–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritsche I, Hafner K (2012) The malicious effects of existential threat on motivation to protect the natural environment and the role of environmental identity as a moderator. Environ Behav 44(4):570–590. doi:10.1177/0013916510397759

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fritsche I, Jonas E, Kayser DN, Koranyi N (2010) Existential threat and compliance with pro-environmental norms. J Environ Psychol 30(1):67–79. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.08.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gleick PH (1998) Water in crisis: paths to sustainable water use. Ecol Appl 8(3):571–579. doi:10.2307/2641249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gleick PH (2000) The changing water paradigm: a look at twenty-first century water resources development. Water Int 25(1):127–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gleick PH (2010) Roadmap for sustainable water resources in southwestern North America. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107(50):21300–21305

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Graupmann V, Peres I, Michaely T, Meindl T, Frey D, Reiser M et al (2013) Culture and its neurofunctional correlates when death is in mind. Neurosci Lett 548:239–243. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2013.05.062

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg J (2008) Understanding the vital human quest for self-esteem. Perspect Psychol Sci 3(1):48–55. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6916.2008.00061

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg J, Pyszczynski T, Solomon S, Pinel E, Simon L, Jordan K (1993) Effects of self-esteem on vulnerability-denying defensive distortions: further evidence of an anxiety-buffering function of self-esteem. J Exp Soc Psychol 29(3):229–251. doi:10.1006/jesp.1993.1010

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg J, Pyszczynski T, Solomon S, Simon L, Breus M (1994) Role of consciousness and accessibility of death-related thoughts in mortality salience effects. J Pers Soc Psychol 67(4):627–637. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.67.4.627

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg J, Arndt J, Simon L, Pyszczynski T, Solomon S (2000) Proximal and distal defenses in response to reminders of one’s mortality: evidence of a temporal sequence. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 26(1):91–99. doi:10.1177/0146167200261009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg J, Kosloff S, Solomon S, Cohen F, Landau M (2010) Toward understanding the fame game: the effect of mortality salience on the appeal of fame. Self Identity 9(1):1–18. doi:10.1080/15298860802391546

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gyurak A, Gross JJ, Etkin A (2011) Explicit and implicit emotion regulation: a dual-process framework. Cognit Emot 25(3):400–412. doi:10.1080/02699931.2010.544160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen R, Chapman G, Tvedt T (2011) Water, geopolitics and collective power in the New World Order. In: Tvedt T, Chapman G (eds) A history of water, Water and geopolitics in the New World Order, series II, vol III. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 3–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Halliday S (2005) Water: a turbulent history. The History Press, Stroud

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamlet AF (2011) Assessing water resources adaptive capacity to climate change impacts in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15(5):1427–1443. doi:10.5194/hess-15-1427-2011

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harmon-Jones E, Simon L, Greenberg J, Pyszczynski T, Solomon S, McGregor H (1997) Terror management theory and self-esteem: evidence that increased self-esteem reduces mortality salience effects. J Pers Soc Psychol 72(1):24–36. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.72.1.24

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hiltzik M (2010) Colossus: the turbulent, thrilling sage of the building of Hoover Dam. Free Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Homer-Dixon T (1994) Environmental scarcities and violent conflict—evidence from cases. Int Secur 19(1):5–40. doi:10.2307/2539147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hundley N Jr (1975) Water and the west. University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson DC (2005) Building the ultimate dam: John S. Eastwood and the control of water in the West. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson DC (2011) Colossus: Hoover dam and the making of the American century. J Am Hist 98(1):236. doi:10.1093/jahist/jar067

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson RB, Carpenter SR, Dahm CN, McKnight DM, Naiman RJ, Postel SL, Running SW (2001) Water in a changing world. Ecol Appl 11(4):1027–1045

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jakobsson E (2010) The history of flowing water policy in Sweden: from natural flow to industrialized rivers. In: Tvedt T, Chapman R (eds) A history of water, Rivers and society from early civilizations to modern times, series II, vol II. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 424–439

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonas E, Fischer P (2006) Terror management and religion: evidence that intrinsic religiousness mitigates worldview defense following mortality salience. J Pers Soc Psychol 91(3):553–567. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.91.3.553

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jury WA, Vaux HJ Jr (2007) The emerging global water crisis: managing scarcity and conflict between water users. Adv Agron 95(95):1–76. doi:10.1016/S0065-2113(07)95001-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamash Z (2012) An exploration of the relationship between shifting power, changing behaviour and new water technologies in the roman near east. Water Hist 4(1):79–93. doi:10.1007/s12685-012-0049-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karr J (1991) Biological integrity—a long-neglected aspect of water-resource management. Ecol Appl 1(1):66–84. doi:10.2307/1941848

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kasser T, Sheldon K (2000) Of wealth and death: materialism, mortality salience, and consumption behavior. Psychol Sci 11(4):348–351. doi:10.1111/1467-9280.00269

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kim H, Markus H (1999) Deviance or uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis. J Pers Soc Psychol 77(4):785–800. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.77.4.785

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koole SL, Ven den Berg AE (2005) Lost in the wilderness: terror management, action orientation, and nature evaluation. J Pers Soc Psychol 88(6):1014–1028

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krippendorff K (2004) Measuring the reliability of qualitative text analysis data. Qual Quant 38(6):787–800. doi:10.1007/s11135-004-8107-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landau M, Johns M, Greenberg J, Pyszczynski T, Martens A, Goldenberg J, Solomon S (2004) A function of form: terror management and structuring the social world. J Pers Soc Psychol 87(2):190–210. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.87.2.190

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larvor B (2003) Why did Kuhn’s structure of scientific revolutions cause a fuss? Stud Hist Philos Sci 34A(2):369–390. doi:10.1016/S0039-3681(03)00023-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazarova V, Levine B, Sack J, Cirelli G, Jeffrey P, Muntau H et al (2001) Role of water reuse for enhancing integrated water management in europe and mediterranean countries. Water Sci Technol 43(10):25–33

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Le Mentec K (2014) The Three Gorges dam and the demiurges: the story of a failed contemporary myth elaboration in China. Water Hist 6(4):385–403. doi:10.1007/s12685-014-0118-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leone A (2012) Water management in late antique North Africa: agricultural irrigation. Water Hist 4(1):119–133. doi:10.1007/s12685-012-0052-0

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lerner J, Keltner D (2000) Beyond valence: toward a model of emotion-specific influences on judgement and choice. Cognit Emot 14(4):473–493

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leuchtenberg WE (1968) The New dDal and the analogue of war. In: Braeman J (ed) Change and continuity in twentieth century America: the 1920s. Ohio State University Pres, Athens, pp 81–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Lifton R (1973) Sense of immortality—on death and continuity of life. Am J Psychoanal 33(1):3–15. doi:10.1007/BF01872131

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Loewenstein G, Weber E, Hsee C, Welch N (2001) Risk as feelings. Psychol Bull 127(2):267–286. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.127.2.267

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Malmqvist B, Rundle S (2002) Threats to the running water ecosystems of the world. Environ Conserv 29(2):134–153. doi:10.1017/S0376892902000097

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mårtensson M (2000) A critical review of knowledge management as a management tool. J Knowl Manag 4(3):116–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin RL, Archer MA, Brill, L (2001) Why do people and organizations produce the opposite of what they intend? Submiss to the Walkerton Inq Part II. Toronto

  • Mazur A, Lee J (1993) Sounding the global alarm—environmental-issues in the United-States national news. Soc Stud Sci 23(4):681–720. doi:10.1177/030631293023004003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCully P (2001) Silenced rivers: the ecology and politics of large dams. Zed Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Miescher SF (2014) “Nkrumah’s baby”: the Akosombo dam and the dream of development in Ghana, 1952–1966. Water Hist 6(4):341–366. doi:10.1007/s12685-014-0112-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milliman JD, Farnsworth KL (2011) River discharge to the coastal ocean: a global synthesis. Cambridge University Pres, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • O’Sullivan J (1845) Annexation. US Magaz Democr Rev 17(1):5–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Oelschlaeger M (1993) The idea of wilderness. Yale University of Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Ohman A (2010) Fear and anxiety: overlaps and dissociation. In: M Lewis, JM Haviland-Jones, LF Barrett (eds) Handbook of emotions. Guilford Press, New York, pp 709–729

  • Ostrom E, Burger J, Field C, Norgaard R, Policansky D (1999) Sustainability–revisiting the commons: local lessons, global challenges. Science 284(5412):278–282. doi:10.1126/science.284.5412.278

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Oyserman D, Coon H, Kemmelmeier M (2002) Rethinking individualism and collectivism: evaluation of theoretical assumptions and meta-analyses. Psychol Bull 128(1):3–72. doi:10.1037//0033-2909.128.1.3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pahl-Wostl C, Craps M, Dewulf A, Mostert E, Tabara D, Taillieu T (2007) Social learning and water resources management. Ecol Soc 12(2):5

    Google Scholar 

  • Pisani DJ (2002) Water and American government: the reclamation bureau, national water policy, and the West, 1902–1935. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Ponting C (1991) A green history of the world. Sinclair-Stevenson Limited, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Postel S (2000) Entering an era of water scarcity: the challenges ahead. Ecol Appl 10(4):941–948. doi:10.2307/2641009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pyszczynski T, Greenberg J, Solomon S (1999) A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related thoughts: an extension of terror management theory. Psychol Rev 106(4):835–845. doi:10.1037//0033-295X.106.4.835

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pyszczynski T, Solomon S, Greenberg J, Arndt J, Schimel J (2004) Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychol Bull 130(3):435–468. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.130.3.435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raghunathan R, Pham M (1999) All negative moods are not equal: motivational influences of anxiety and sadness on decision making. Organl Behav Hum Decis Process 79(1):56–77. doi:10.1006/obhd.1999.2838

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raleigh C, Urdal H (2007) Climate change, environmental degradation and armed conflict. Polit Geogr 26(6):674–694. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2007.06.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reisner M (1987) Cadillac desert: the American west and its disappearing water. Penguin Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Reuss M (2005) Ecology, planning, and river management in the United States: some historical reflections. Ecol Soc 10(1):34

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenberg D, Bodaly R, Usher P (1995) Environmental and social impacts of large-scale hydroelectric development–who is listening. Glob Environ Change Hum Policy Dimens 5(2):127–148. doi:10.1016/0959-3780(95)00018-J

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenblatt A, Greenberg J, Solomon S, Pyszczynski T, Lyon D (1989) Evidence for terror management theory. 1. the effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural-values. J Pers Soc Psychol 57(4):681–690. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.57.4.681

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schimel J, Arndt J, Pyszczynski T, Greenberg J (2001) Being accepted for who we are: evidence that social validation of the intrinsic self reduces general defensiveness. J Pers Soc Psychol 80(1):3552. doi:10.1037//0022-3514.80.1.35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmeichel BJ, Gailliot MT, Filardo E, McGregor I, Gitter S, Baumeister RF (2009) Terror management theory and self-esteem revisited: the roles of implicit and explicit self-esteem in mortality salience effects. J Pers Soc Psychol 96(5):1077–1087. doi:10.1037/a0015091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shapere D (1964) The structure of scientific revolutions. Philos Rev 73(3):383–394

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sivakumar B (2011) Global climate change and its impacts on water resources planning and management: assessment and challenges. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 25(4):583–600. doi:10.1007/s00477-010-0423-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sligte DJ, Nijstad BA, De Dreu CKW (2013) Leaving a legacy neutralizes negative effects of death anxiety on creativity. Pers Soc Psychol Bull 39(9):1152–1163. doi:10.1177/0146167213490804

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solomon S, Greenberg J, Pyszczynski T (2004) The cultural animal: twenty years of terror management theory and research. In: Greenberg J, Koole SL, Pyszczynski T (eds) Handbook of experimental existential psychology. The Guildford Press, New York, pp 13–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Stake R (1995) The art of case study research. Sage, Thousand Oaks

    Google Scholar 

  • Stake R (2007) Qualitative case studies. In: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS (eds) Strategies of qualitative inquiry, 3rd edn. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, pp 119–150

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens L, Shannon J, Blinn D (1997) Colorado river benthic ecology in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA: Dam, tributary and geomorphological influences. Regul Rivers Res Manag 13(2):129–149. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1099-1646(199703)13:2<129:AID-RRR431>3.0.CO;2-S

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swayamprakash R (2014) Exportable engineering expertise for ‘development’: a story of large dams in post-independence India. Water Hist 6(2):153–165. doi:10.1007/s12685-013-0086-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tvedt T (2010) ‘Water systems’, environmental history and the deconstruction of nature. Environ Hist 16:143–166. doi:10.3197/096734010X12699419057179

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tvedt T, Coopey R (2010) A ‘water systems’ perspective on history. In: Tvedt T, Coopey R (eds) A history of water, Rivers and society from early civilizations to modern times, series II, vol II. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, London, pp 3–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Tvedt T, Oestigaard T (2010) A history of the ideas of water: deconstructing nature and constructing society. In: Tvedt T, Oestigaard T (eds) A history of water, Ideas of water from ancient societies to the modern world, series II, vol I. IB Tauris and Co Ltd, New York, pp 1–36

    Google Scholar 

  • United Nations (2010) Water scarcity factsheet. http://www.unwater.org/publications/publications-detail/en/c/204294/

  • Vess M, Arndt J (2008) The nature of death and the death of nature: the impact of mortality salience on environmental concern. J Res Pers 42(5):1376–1380. doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2008.04.007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vörösmarty CJ, Green P, Salisbury J, Lammers RB (2000) Global water resources: vulnerability from climate change and population growth. Science 289(5477):284–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vörösmarty CJ, McIntyre PB, Gessner MO, Dudgeon D, Prusevich A, Green P et al (2010) Global threats to human water security and river biodiversity. Natural 467(7315):555–561. doi:10.1038/nature09440

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Vugteveen P, Lenders HJR (2009) The duality of integrated water management: Science, policy or both? J Integr Environ Sci 6(1):51–67. doi:10.1080/15693430802689181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whittington D, Waterbury J, Jeuland M (2014) The Grand Renaissance dam and prospects for cooperation on the eastern Nile. Water Policy 16(4):595–608. doi:10.2166/wp.2014.011

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson A (2012) Water, power and culture in the Roman and Byzantine worlds: an introduction. Water Hist 4(1):1–9. doi:10.1007/s12685-012-0050-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf AT (2007) Shared waters: conflict and cooperation. Annu Rev Environ Resour 32:241–269. doi:10.1146/annurev.energy.32.041006.101434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Huang J, Han X, Gao X, He F, Jiang M et al (2004) The Three Gorges dam: an ecological perspective. Front Ecol Environ 2(5):241–248. doi:10.1890/1540-9295(2004)002[0241:TTGDAE]2.0.CO

  • Zaleskiewicz T, Gasiorowska A, Kesebir P, Luszczynska A, Pyszczynski T (2013) Money and the fear of death: the symbolic power of money as an existential anxiety buffer. J Econ Psychol 36:55–67. doi:10.1016/j.joep.2013.02.008

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the anonymous reviewer who provided detailed and supportive feedback during this process. This work was supported by Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through their Insight Development Grant (2012: #430-2012-0264).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environment and Resource Studies, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada

    H. C. Ross & S. E. Wolfe

Authors
  1. H. C. Ross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. S. E. Wolfe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. E. Wolfe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ross, H.C., Wolfe, S.E. Life after death: evidence of the Hoover Dam as a hero project that defends against mortality reminders. Water Hist 8, 3–21 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-015-0151-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12685-015-0151-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation