The fourth volume of the comprehensive history of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is titled “Minerals, Lands, and Geology for the Common Defence and General Welfare—Volume 4, 1939‒1961.” The title is based on a passage in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution.
\nThe late Mary C. Rabbitt (1915‒2002), a geophysicist who served with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1948‒1949) and the USGS (1949‒1978), wrote the first three volumes in this series of USGS Special Books. “Volume 1, Before 1879” (1979), “Volume 2, 1879‒1904” (1980), and “Volume 3, 1904‒1939” (1986), although long out of print and out of stock, are now available online; see links at right.
\nThe 704-page Volume 4, supplemented by more than 200 illustrations, was begun by Rabbitt and completed by coauthor Clifford M. Nelson, a geologist with the USGS since 1976. The book is described as “A History of Geology in Relation to the Development of Public-Land, Federal Science, and Mapping Policies and the Development of Mineral Resources in the United States From the 60th to the 82d Year of the U.S. Geological Survey.” Volume 4 focuses on the United States and the USGS in war and peace from the beginning of World War II in Europe to the end of the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Like the earlier books in the series, Volume 4 places the nature and significance of USGS operations in mapping and the earth sciences in the wider contexts of national and international history. The new volume, like its three predecessors, is intended for general readers and historians alike, so it follows a chronological rather than a thematic pattern, although themes are traced throughout the book.
\nAfter preparing Volumes 1–3, Rabbitt wrote a brief report summarizing the agency's history in its first century, “The United States Geological Survey: 1879‒1989,” which was originally issued as USGS Circular 1050 in 1989. It was reissued in 2000 as part of USGS Circular 1179, which also contains Renée M. Jaussaud’s inventory of documents accessioned through 1997 into Record Group 57 (USGS) at the National Archives and Records Administration’s Archives II facility (NARA II) in College Park, Maryland.
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From a national perspective, these were years of great development and change in the use of energy, trouble in the coal industry, and a great expansion in the oil industry. They were also years in which the public perceived for the first time that the Nation's mineral resources are not infinite, and the mineral industry realized its dependence on international trade. In these years, water became an increasingly valuable commodity, and the need for a national mapping program became abundantly evident. These were also the years when the Federal Government for the most part practiced stringent economy in funding science, but State and municipal agencies increasingly sought the services of the Survey's topographic and water specialists to aid in the solution of local problems. The balance maintained between fundamental and practical research during the first 25 years was more than once upset during the next 25 years, but the successful struggle to maintain a significant level of research laid the groundwork for the tremendous expansion in the Survey in the subsequent years.
","language":"English","publisher":"U.S. Government Printing Office","publisherLocation":"Washington, D.C.","usgsCitation":"Rabbitt, M.C., 1986, Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 3, 1904-1939 : A history of geology in relation to the development of public-land, federal-science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United States from the 25th to the 60th year of the U.S. Geological Survey, v. 3, x, 479 p.","productDescription":"x, 479 p.","onlineOnly":"N","additionalOnlineFiles":"N","costCenters":[{"id":366,"text":"Library","active":true,"usgs":true},{"id":37226,"text":"Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, and Libraries","active":true,"usgs":true}],"links":[{"id":91253,"rank":300,"type":{"id":11,"text":"Document"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/book/1986/rabbitt-vol3/report.pdf","text":"Report","size":"172.39 MB","linkFileType":{"id":1,"text":"pdf"},"description":"Report"},{"id":19872,"rank":100,"type":{"id":15,"text":"Index Page"},"url":"https://www.archive.org/details/historyv3","linkFileType":{"id":5,"text":"html"}},{"id":126105,"rank":0,"type":{"id":24,"text":"Thumbnail"},"url":"https://pubs.usgs.gov/book/1986/rabbitt-vol3/report-thumb.jpg"}],"volume":"3","noUsgsAuthors":false,"publicationStatus":"PW","scienceBaseUri":"4f4e49fae4b07f02db5f3da9","contributors":{"authors":[{"text":"Rabbitt, Mary C.","contributorId":94242,"corporation":false,"usgs":true,"family":"Rabbitt","given":"Mary","email":"","middleInitial":"C.","affiliations":[{"id":595,"text":"U.S. Geological Survey","active":false,"usgs":true}],"preferred":false,"id":308006,"contributorType":{"id":1,"text":"Authors"},"rank":1}]}} ,{"id":800002,"text":"800002 - 1980 - Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 2, 1879-1904 : A history of geology in relation to the development of public-land, federal-science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United States during the first 25 years of the U.S. Geological Survey","interactions":[],"lastModifiedDate":"2018-09-21T11:09:56","indexId":"800002","displayToPublicDate":"1980-01-01T00:00:00","publicationYear":"1980","noYear":false,"publicationType":{"id":4,"text":"Book"},"publicationSubtype":{"id":15,"text":"Monograph"},"title":"Minerals, lands, and geology for the common defence and general welfare, Volume 2, 1879-1904 : A history of geology in relation to the development of public-land, federal-science, and mapping policies and the development of mineral resources in the United States during the first 25 years of the U.S. Geological Survey","docAbstract":"In the traditional view of the Survey's first 25 years, which are the subject of much of this volume, John Wesley Powell, with his broad view of science and advanced ideas of land and water in the West, is the heroic figure. Clarence King is dismissed as brilliant but with a limited view of science as mining geology, and Charles D. Walcott is regarded primarily as a brilliant paleontologist chosen by Powell to succeed him. The Survey's first quarter century, however, spanned a watershed in American history that separated a primarily rural and agrarian nation and a primarily urban and industrial nation, a nation intent on conquering the continent and isolated from the Old World and a nation involved in world politics, a nation that believed in the virtues of competition and limited government and a nation that saw the virtue of cooperation and insisted on reform and regulation to ensure equal opportunities to all. Science itself changed during this period. The age of instruments was just beginning when the Survey was established; by the turn of the century, instruments had almost revolutionized science and the era of the lone investigator had to give way to an era of organized effort in the solution of problems.
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