Engineering Historians From the History of Projects to the History of Nature

The paper analyzes the production and use of historical accounts by French public works engineers, especially in their project documents, reports and letters. The paper relies on a case study of the early nineteenth century, the discussion about the Ourcq canal, in order to introduce the diversity of styles and forms these histories could take and to discuss their various strategic uses in the context of project-making. History was a rhetorical resource for these practitioners in order to attribute responsibility retrospectively, to defend their status and reputation in controversial situations. But it was also a tool in their everyday practice with which to argue in favor of a specific scheme. The paper concludes by situating the historical activity of these engineers within Reinhart Koselleck's framework of << historicity >>, highlighting how intertwined histories of projects and histories of nature usually were in engineering practices.