Tag Archives: international

Dwight Eisenhower Library

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The website of the Eisenhower Library in Abilene, Kansas, is an access portal for oral histories of the administration that are available through multiple institutions, primarily the Eisenhower Library, the Columbia University Oral History Project, as well as other libraries with smaller collections. The library website provides detailed abstracts of linked interviews, but in most cases researchers must visit the repositories to access transcripts for audio files. (A limited number of transcripts are available online.) The full list of interviews is available at the Eisenhower library’s oral history page.

An initial survey reveals nineteen interviews with abstracts or transcripts available through the Eisenhower library that contain significant content pertaining to regulatory issues. These interviews provide a window on the evolution of the post-war American regulatory state, with particular attention to global contexts, including the Cold War, the Korean war, the development of the European Common Market, and advancements in and proliferation of nuclear energy technologies and weapons. The Atomic Energy Commission, the Federal Reserve, and the agricultural commodities trade (esp. sugar) receive particular attention in these geopolitical contexts. Domestically, post-war economic growth fostered renewed political debate over the federal government’s role in the economy and the continued utility of regulatory policies first instituted during the New Deal. Several interviews discuss the establishment of the Federal Aviation Agency (precursor to the Federal Aviation Administration) and the growth of the airline industry. Changes to the policy structures for the regulation of agricultural commodities are also a prominent themes. Many interviews cover issues related to  U.S. fiscal and economic policies and regulations. Several discuss the activities and internal politics of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors. Others discuss appointments, staffing, and regulatory actions by the Securities and Exchange commission and enforcement of anti-trust policy by the Justice Department.

Summary by:  Elizabeth Brake

California and Regional Land-Use Planning

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Project description: This is the catch all for interviews housed at the Regional Oral History Office at UC – Berkeley related to land-use and planning. These range from interviews with architects, ranchers, land developers, conservationists, state attorneys, and government planners.

Regulatory significance: These interviews provide considerable insight into the evolution of local and regional land-use planning from a wide variety of perspectives. Resource management—particularly water and soil—is a heavy focus, as is coordination among various agencies and levels of government. One set of interviews focuses on the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission. Several interviews look at resource management and land-use planning in other countries, including Greece, China, Israel and parts of Africa and Latin America.

Repository: University of California – Berkeley

Interview dates: 1965 – present

Digital access: Transcripts for most of these interviews are available online.

Physical access: For access to all transcripts and audio, visit the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley, California.

Link: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/subjectarea/natres/landuse.html

Interviews on Business History

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Project description: This is the catch all for business history interviews housed at the Regional Oral History Office at UC – Berkeley. These are interviews with major West Coast players in a wide variety of industries and business sectors: textiles, shipping, banking, agriculture, import-export businesses, etc. Most of the interviews are extensive life histories and transcripts run to hundreds of pages.

Regulatory significance: A large swath of these interviews at least touch on regulatory issues related to the specific industries that the interviewees worked in. This is a very rich collection for exploring the perspective of business on government regulation. Of particular note on financial regulation is an interview with Walter E. Hoadley, former Federal Reserve system director.

Repository: University of California – Berkeley

Interview dates: 1955 – present

Digital access: Transcripts for these interviews are available online.

Physical access: For access to all transcripts and audio, visit the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley, California.

Link: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/collections/subjectarea/business/businesst.html

IEEE History Center Oral History Program

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Repository description: The IEEE Global History Network has collected almost 500 oral history interviews, principally with electrical engineers.

Regulatory significance: A private organization, IEEE is one of the most significant standard setting bodies for electrical technology in the world. Most of the oral histories focus on the development of computers and other highly technical electrical innovations, but some projects will be of particular interest to researchers interested in private regulation and standard setting. Many of these also discuss government’s role in influencing these standards. Relevant projects include interviews with past presidents, discussion of the merger of AIEE and IRE to form the IEEE in 1963, and dozens of interviews focused on standardization.

Dates: Late 1960s – present

Digital access: Selections, if not full transcripts, of most interviews are available online.

Physical access: Researchers should contact the IEEE History Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

URL: http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Special:OralHistories

Marlboro Oral History Collection

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Project description: This collection contains dozens of interviews regarding Marlboro cigarettes, with a heavy focus on how cigarette advertising changed over time both in the U.S. and in other countries. The broad range of interviewees included executives of Philip Morris, advertising agency personnel from Leo Burnett, photographers, production staff, sales and marketing personnel, and Marlboro cowboys.

Regulatory significance: Uncertain, as the interviews are not available online, but this collection likely speaks to health and safety regulation of cigarettes, and particularly cigarette advertising.

Repository: National Museum of American History

Interview dates: bulk 1985-87, covering the 1930s to the 1980s.

Digital access: No online access.

Physical access: Holdings are available to researchers at the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC.

Link: http://amhistory.si.edu/archives/d7198.htm

Containerization Oral History Collection

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Project description: This project involved about a dozen interviewees involved in the process of containerization: standardizing shipping crates to fit a variety of transportation methods and pack in more efficient ways. Interviews were conducted by Arthur Donovan, who wrote a book on the subject.

Regulatory significance: Uncertain, as the interviews are not available online, but this collection likely speaks to standard setting in both public and private contexts. Container disparities in size, shape, and material have been considered a non-tariff barrier to trade, and the process of standardizing containers facilitated globalization.

Repository: National Museum of American History

Interview dates: 1995-1998

Digital access: No online access.

Physical access: Holdings are available to researchers at the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC.

Link: URL for catalog description

Computer Oral History Collection

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Project description: This project began in 1967 with the main objective to collect, document, house, and make available for research source material surrounding the development of the computer. The project collected taped oral interviews with individuals who figured prominently in developing or advancing the computer field.

Regulatory significance: At least some interviews speak to issues of private regulatory processes related to standardization of computer language, hardware, etc. A fuller survey of this collection is needed to assess the degree to which it addresses governmental regulation of the computer industry.

Repository: National Museum of American History

Interview dates: 1969-1973, 1977

Digital access: Dozens of online transcripts are available.

Physical access: Holdings are available to researchers at the Archives Center of the National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC.

Link: http://amhistory.si.edu/archives/AC0196.htm

International Negotiations Project

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Project description: Edward W. Barrett, director of the Communications Institute of the Academy for Educational Development, conducted a series of interviews with practitioners in the field of international negotiations and mediation of disputes. The interviews are preserved by the Oral History program and will be drawn on in delineating guidelines that may be useful to those mediating and negotiating international differences in the future. [Description from finding aid]

Regulatory significance: This project should be valuable to researchers interested in international law and the negotiation of transnational regulation. While most of the interviews appear to relate to national security rather than business regulation, at least one interview involves international bank and monetary regulation and another discusses the European common market.

Repository: Columbia Center for Oral History

Interview dates: 1970-1973

Digital access: Only abstracts. No online transcripts or audio.

Physical access: For transcripts and audio, researchers may visit the Columbia Center for Oral History.

Link: http://oralhistoryportal.cul.columbia.edu/document.php?id=ldpd_4072696

Interviewees: Theodore C. Achilles, 43; Frederik Arkhurst, 60; George W. Ball, 19; Lucius D. Battle, 51; Manlio Brosio, 24; W. Randolph Burgess, 29; Norman Cousins, 23; Rajeshwar Dayal, 35; Hugh Mackintosh Foot (Baron Caradon), 62; Gerald R. Ford, 34; Arthur Goldberg, 51, permission required; W. Averell Harriman, 353; Sir Geoffrey Harrison, 34; John D. Hickerson, 36; Max Jakobson, 51; Philip C. Jessup, 49; Joseph E. Johnson, 120, permission required; Khwaja Kaiser, 29; Theodore W. Kheel, 43; Robert Lovett, 28; John J. McCloy, 24; George C. McGhee, 48; Livingston D. Merchant, 41; Robert D. Murphy, 35; Kenneth Rush, 9; J. Robert Schaetzel, 59; Dirk Spierenberg, 39; Llewellyn Thompson, 29; Ernst Van Der Buegel, 51; Vladimir Velebit, 80; Sir Alan Watt, 67; Charles W. Yost, 21. Round table discussions of their roles in international negotiations; Paris Peace talks; SALT talks; Arab-Israeli discussions; Russian diplomacy; UN role in mediation. Participants: Edward W. Barrett, Andrew Cordier, Alvin Eurich, Adrian S. Fisher, Joseph E. Johnson, Henry Cabot Lodge, others. 104 pp. John M. Allison, 23; Davis Bobrow, 41; Emerson Chapin, 25; Theodore Chen, 26; Tillman Durdin, 20; Robert S. Elegant, 33; John Fairbank, 25; C.T. Hu, 18; Harold Isaacs, 9; T.B. Koh, 28; Daniel Lerner, 15; John Lindbeck, 18; Sidney Liu, 28; Ithiel de Sola Pool, 20; Lucien Pye, 32; Milton Sacks, 26; Sol Sanders, 52; Ezra Vogel, 23.

Pioneers of the Medical Device Industry in Minnesota

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Project description: This collection of 17 interviews focuses on the growth of the medical device industry in Minnesota.

Regulatory significance: Many of these interviews discuss regulation of the medical device industry by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Discussions also involve liability, non-U.S. regulation in Europe and South America, and the role of trade groups and state support for the industry.

Repository: Minnesota Historical Society

Interview dates: 1995-2001

Digital access: Transcripts, as well as audio, are available online.

Physical access: Original interview materials are available at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Link: http://collections.mnhs.org/voicesofmn/index.php/10002544