120 / Making the American landscape as we know it / with John Dean Davis

<p><strong>John Dean Davis </strong>— Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at The Ohio State University&#39;s Knowlton School of Architecture — is in good traffic this week for a peek at how Reconstruction-era America and the landscapes it built. Prof. Davis&#39; new book, <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo270351756.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">Reconstructors: Land, Work, and Engineering After the Civil War</a>, posits that Reconstruction wasn&#39;t a mere political realignment, but a massive physical rebuilding project whose infrastructure and ideology shape the contemporary American landscape as we know it.</p><p><br></p><p>We also touch on: The origin story of Davis&#39; book project, sparked by a solo drive from Boston to New Orleans and a stop at the Old River Control Structure five years after Katrina. Why the &quot;New South&quot; was more industrial than its cotton-field reputation suggests. The case that Reconstruction, in some form, never really stopped. Teaching field trips to Mexico City and the &quot;road trip paper&quot; assignment Davis gives his students. His mentor John Stilgoe&#39;s advice to go outside and look at things — ideally by bike. A debate over history&#39;s most important technological contributions. Rebecca Solnit&#39;s writing-as-carpentry metaphor, and why generalists need to read broadly to stay sharp.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Timeline:</strong></p><p>0:00 John Dean Davis is in good traffic .</p><p>7:10 Road trip to research: a drive from Boston to New Orleans.</p><p>10:15 Standing at Old River Control, feeling the Mississippi&#39;s power.</p><p>11:37 Reconstruction as the hinge of American history.</p><p>16:28 Becoming a landscape historian: carpentry, mud, and 1870s engineering in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.</p><p>19:38 The &quot;New South&quot; myth.</p><p>23:21 Did Reconstruction ever actually end?</p><p>25:23 Staying optimistic as a historian.</p><p>28:54 Mentor John Stilgoe&#39;s philosophy, and the case for touring a new place by bike.</p><p>34:29 Public lands politics: Gilded Age extraction vs. conservation, and today&#39;s rural land defenders.</p><p>39:08 The road trip paper assignment.</p><p>48:24 History&#39;s greatest technological contribution.</p><p>55:16 Most walkable college towns.</p><p>58:17 Commuting on the Metro-North as a teenager.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Further context:</strong></p><p><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo270351756.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">The book — Reconstructors: Land, Work, and Engineering After the Civil War.</a></p><p><a href="https://www.mvd.usace.army.mil/About/Mississippi-River-Commission-MRC/Mississippi-River-Tributaries-Project-MR-T/Old-River-Control/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferer">The mentioned Old River Control Structure (US Army Corps of Engineers).</a></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p><p><br></p>