- Richard G. Hewlett
Richard Greening Hewlett (born 1923) is an American public
historian best known for his work as the Chief Historian of theUnited States Atomic Energy Commission .Biography
Hewlett was born in
Toledo, Ohio in 1923. In 1941 he attendedDartmouth College , but after theattack on Pearl Harbor he enlisted in theU.S. Army Air Corps working in work related tometeorology . With a number of other privates he attendedBowdoin College for a year focusing on science. In June 1944 he did work relating to usingradar to trackweather balloon s, and eventually the military sent him toHarvard University to study in the electronics school. In early 1945 he was sent to WesternChina as aradiosonde operator, sending meteorological information by radio to U.S. forces which used them in planning bombing raids onJapan . After the war, Hewlett attendedgraduate school inhistory at theUniversity of Chicago , though he never completed his undergraduate degree. He received his master's degree in 1948 and hisPh.D. in 1952, writing his thesis onLewis Cass , a nineteenth-centuryMichigan politician.While he was completing his dissertation, Hewlett accepted a position as an intelligence specialist in the
United States Air Force , examining open literature on factories in theSoviet Union . Hewlett found the job tedious and in 1952 lept at the chance to be a program analyst in theUnited States Atomic Energy Commission (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 theUnited States Army . 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 theAtomic Energy Commission's Historical Advisory Committee , 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. 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 ofVannevar Bush andJames B. Conant , and is currently considered one of the most important collections of documents relating toManhattan Project 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 1963Pulitzer Prize . Hewlett continued his work and published the second volume, "Atomic Shield, 1947-1952" in 1969, which received the David D. Lloyd prize from theHarry 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 , because AdmiralHyman G. Rickover refused to allow it to be published unless Hewlett agreed to write an official history of theNuclear Navy 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 (ERDA). When ERDA itself was dismantled in 1977, his position was transferred to its successor, the Department of Energy. When theThree 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, namedHistory Associates Incorporated and based inRockville, Maryland .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, though he was still in the process of writing his third volume of AEC history. Because of institutional changes, Hewlett had difficulty getting the work approved for public release, though it was eventually published as "Atoms for Peace and War, 1953-1961" in 1989.
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 and theNational Council on Public History .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.References
*Hewlett, Richard G., and Jo Anne McCormick Quatannens. "Richard G. Hewlett: Federal Historian," "The Public Historian" 19:1 (Winter 1997): 53-83.
External links
* [http://www.historyassociates.com History Associates Incorporated] , Hewlett's current company
* [http://alsos.wlu.edu/adv_rst.aspx?query=Richard+G.+Hewlett Annotated bibliography for Richard G. Hewlett from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]
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