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Abbott Payson Usher Prize

The Abbott Payson Usher Prize was established in 1961 to honor the scholarly contributions of the late Dr. Usher and to encourage the publication of original research of the highest standard. It is awarded annually to the author of the best scholarly work published during the preceding three years under the auspices of the Society for the History of Technology.

Recipient of the 2024 Abbott Payson Usher Prize:

SHOT President Gabrielle Hecht announcing Faisal Husain, recipient of the 2024 Usher Prize. (Photo SHOT)

Faisal Husain, Penn State University
For: “To Dam or Not to Dam: The Social Construction of an Ottoman Hydraulic Project, 1701-1702,” Technology and Culture, vol. 64 no. 2, 2023, p. 456-484.

Husain’s article chronicles the ambitious attempt by the Ottoman state under Sultan Mustafa II
in 1701 to build a dam to restore the Euphrates River to its path, and the devastating human
and environmental consequences of this unsuccessful endeavor. About thirty years before, the
river had shifted its course dramatically, leaving subjects loyal to the Ottoman state without its
irrigating waters, while the new floodplain simultaneously enriched new groups that refused to
pay taxes. This led the Ottoman state to launch a military offensive to subdue the rebels and an
engineering team to restore the river’s previous path. Ottoman troops killed as many as fifty
thousand rebels in a decisive rout, but state technicians failed in their efforts to build a dam.
Despite cutting down all the trees that could be brought to the site, the high waters of the
spring snow melt washed the dam away before it could be completed. The dam project was
abandoned, leaving a deforested landscape and a devastated population.

Husain masterfully narrates this remarkable and tragic historical episode with the skillful use
of a new source: the eyewitness account of an Ottoman military expert critical of the dam
project. Attentive to the political economy of infrastructure projects and the early modern
international flows of expertise among hydraulic technicians, the article is broadly imagined and
globally situated. Well-written, it offers a stellar and haunting case study that exemplifies the
power of the history of technology to illuminate the past.