Richard G. Hewlett
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
public
Public history
Public history is a term that describes the broad range of activities undertaken by people with some training in the discipline of history who are generally working outside of specialized academic settings. Public history practice has quite deep roots in the areas of historic preservation,...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
best known for his work as the Chief Historian of the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
.
Biography
Hewlett was born in Toledo, OhioToledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
in 1923. In 1941 he attended Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, but after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps working in work related to meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
. With a number of other privates he attended Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
for a year focusing on science. In June 1944 he did work relating to using radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
to track weather balloon
Weather balloon
A weather or sounding balloon is a balloon which carries instruments aloft to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of a small, expendable measuring device called a radiosonde...
s, and eventually the military sent him to Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
to study in the electronics school. In early 1945 he was sent to Western China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
as a radiosonde
Radiosonde
A radiosonde is a unit for use in weather balloons that measures various atmospheric parameters and transmits them to a fixed receiver. Radiosondes may operate at a radio frequency of 403 MHz or 1680 MHz and both types may be adjusted slightly higher or lower as required...
operator, sending meteorological information by radio to U.S. forces which used them in planning bombing raids on Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. After the war, Hewlett attended graduate school
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
in history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, though he never completed his undergraduate degree. He received his master's degree in 1948 and his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in 1952, writing his thesis on Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass was an American military officer and politician. During his long political career, Cass served as a governor of the Michigan Territory, an American ambassador, a U.S. Senator representing Michigan, and co-founder as well as first Masonic Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Michigan...
, a nineteenth-century Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
politician.
While he was completing his dissertation, Hewlett accepted a position as an intelligence specialist in the United States Air Force
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...
, examining open literature on factories in the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Hewlett found the job tedious and in 1952 leaped at the chance to be a program analyst in the United States Atomic Energy Commission
United States Atomic Energy Commission
The United States Atomic Energy Commission was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by Congress to foster and control the peace time development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S...
(AEC), compiling classified progress reports from all of the many branches of the AEC for the Commissioners. Hewlett later said that this job gave him a good general overview of the AEC and how it worked.
In 1957, Hewlett was contacted in order to find a historian to write an official history of the AEC, a pet project by Commissioner Lewis Strauss. Hewlett was unable to find any academic historians interested, however, in part because science and technology were generally not considered an interesting subject of historical study at the time. Because of his history backgrounds, Hewlett himself was offered the job, which he happily accepted, and became the first official historian of the AEC. Hewlett sought out another public historian, Kent Roberts Greenfield, who was the Chief Historian of the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. Greenfield encouraged Hewlett to establish an independent review board of academic historians who would serve as a buffer between Hewlett and the government bureaucrats who would inevitably object to certain portrayals of past U.S. government activities. Though he faced some initial resistance to the establishment of the Atomic Energy Commission's Historical Advisory Committee
Atomic Energy Commission's Historical Advisory Committee
The Atomic Energy Commission's Historical Advisory Committee was established in February 1958, when the United States Atomic Energy Commission was a decade old and continued until 1974 when the Energy Research and Development Administration and later the United States Department of Energy replaced...
, it was eventually approved by Strauss himself on the recommendation of one of Strauss's favorite academic historians.
Part of Hewlett's work in writing the AEC history was acquiring historical AEC records before they were destroyed, encouraging local AEC agencies and branches to think about their records in a historical manner, and marking historical records for depositing at the National Archives
National Archives and Records Administration
The National Archives and Records Administration is an independent agency of the United States government charged with preserving and documenting government and historical records and with increasing public access to those documents, which comprise the National Archives...
. Hewlett later recounted an incident in which he was called, as Chief Historian, to witness to opening of an old wartime filing cabinet found under a stairwell of an AEC building. After the locksmith had opened the cabinet, Hewlett reached in and the first document he pulled out was a letter signed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The cabinet turned out to be the wartime correspondence files of Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush
Vannevar Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a primary organizer of the Manhattan Project, the founding of Raytheon, and the idea of the memex, an adjustable microfilm viewer...
and James B. Conant, and is currently considered one of the most important collections of documents relating to Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
history.
After going over thousands of secret and formerly secret records, Hewlett eventually produced his first volume of the official history, covering the time period of the Manhattan Project through the formation of the AEC. The New World, 1939-1946 was published in 1962, and was a runner-up for the 1963 Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
. Hewlett continued his work and published the second volume, Atomic Shield, 1947-1952 in 1969, which received the David D. Lloyd prize from the Harry S. Truman Library Institute. For both of these books, Hewlett was awarded the Distinguished Employee Award by the AEC, the highest employee award given by the agency.
According to a later interview with Hewlett, he had difficulty in getting the final book cleared for publication by the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, because Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
Hyman G. Rickover
Hyman George Rickover was a four-star admiral of the United States Navy who directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of Naval Reactors...
refused to allow it to be published unless Hewlett agreed to write an official history of the Nuclear Navy
Nuclear navy
Nuclear navy, or nuclear powered navy consists of ships powered by relatively small onboard nuclear reactors known as naval reactors. The concept was revolutionary for naval warfare when first proposed, as it meant that these vessels did not need to stop for fuel like their conventional...
as well. Though irritated at the misuse of security clearances, Hewlett agreed and produced Nuclear Navy, 1946-1962 in 1974. Despite his initial irritation, Hewlett enjoyed working on the project as he was given unfettered access to any related files on account of having Rickover's personal backing.
After the AEC was dismantled in 1974, Hewlett became the Chief Historian of its successor organization, the Energy Research and Development Administration
Energy Research and Development Administration
The United States Energy Research and Development Administration was a United States government organization formed from the split of the Atomic Energy Commission in 1975...
(ERDA). When ERDA itself was dismantled in 1977, his position was transferred to its successor, the Department of Energy
United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government concerned with the United States' policies regarding energy and safety in handling nuclear material...
. When the Three Mile Island accident occurred in 1979, Hewlett was asked to write a history of the event as it was unfolding. Hewlett was by then hoping to retire, however, and two other historians were recommended for the job, Philip L. Cantelon and Robert C. Williams. After the success by Cantelon and Williams in contracting themselves to the DOE, Hewlett, Cantelon, Williams, and Rodney P. Carlisle, then a visiting researcher at the DOE, together founded a private company devoted to writing commissioned official histories of government agencies, individuals, or private companies, named History Associates Incorporated and based in Rockville, Maryland
Rockville, Maryland
Rockville is the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is a major incorporated city in the central part of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. The 2010 U.S...
.
Hewlett later said that only one time he attempted to be involved in AEC/DOE policymaking, writing up a history of the AEC's policies in handling nuclear waste, which he later said did not always portray the agency in a positive light. The document, completed in 1978, was essentially mothballed by the DOE and never followed up on.
Hewlett officially retired from government work in 1980 while he was still working on his third volume of AEC history. Because of institutional changes, Hewlett had difficulty getting the work approved for public release. Finally published in 1989 as Atoms for Peace and War, 1953-1961, the book won the Richard W. Leopold Prize
Richard W. Leopold Prize
The Richard W. Leopold Prize is awarded biennially by the Organization of American Historians . Professor Leopold was President of the OAH in 1976-1977....
from the Organization of American Historians
Organization of American Historians
The Organization of American Historians , formerly known as the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, is the largest professional society dedicated to the teaching and study of American history. OAH's members in the U.S...
as the best book of the year on a U.S. federal government
Federal government
The federal government is the common government of a federation. The structure of federal governments varies from institution to institution. Based on a broad definition of a basic federal political system, there are two or more levels of government that exist within an established territory and...
agency.
Hewlett is today recognized as one of the most influential federal historians in the United States, and was a founding member of both the Society for History in the Federal Government
Society for History in the Federal Government
The Society for History in the Federal Government is a private non-profit organization established in 1979 to promote an understanding of the history of the federal government in the United States and to represent historians serving in the agencies of the U.S. Federal Government.The Society has...
and the National Council on Public History
National Council on Public History
The National Council on Public History is a professional membership association established in 1979 to support a diverse group of people, institutions, agencies, businesses, and academic programs associated with the field of public history. The NCPH publishes a quarterly journal, The Public...
.
Books by Hewlett
- Hewlett, Richard G., and Oscar E. Anderson. The New World, 1939-1946. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962.
- ________, and Francis Duncan. Atomic Shield, 1947-1952. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1969.
- ________, and Francis Duncan. Nuclear Navy, 1946-1962. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974.
- ________, and Jack M. Holl. Atoms for Peace and War, 1953-1961: Eisenhower and the Atomic Energy Commission. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.