Remembering Del-Aware: Community Activism and Eco-Politics in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the Age of Reagan
type: CreativeWork
description: This thesis tells the previously untold story of how environmental activists in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the 1980s waged a nearly decade-long and ultimately losing battle against a plan to pump water from the free-flowing Delaware River. As a case study of grassroots community activism during the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, the struggle known locally as “Dump the Pump” and spearheaded by a nonprofit organization called Del-AWARE supports and provides a regional take on recent scholarship that has illuminated the vibrant underlying dynamics of local civic engagement occurring amid the overshadowing political conservatism of the Reagan years. Also a case study in public history, this thesis demonstrates how collective historical memory fueled not only Del-AWARE’s protracted struggle, but its enduring legacy in public policy and community life. It concludes with suggestions for preserving the history of Del-AWARE before it is lost forever.
abstract: This thesis tells the previously untold story of how environmental activists in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the 1980s waged a nearly decade-long and ultimately losing battle against a plan to pump water from the free-flowing Delaware River. As a case study of grassroots community activism during the presidential administration of Ronald Reagan, the struggle known locally as “Dump the Pump” and spearheaded by a nonprofit organization called Del-AWARE supports and provides a regional take on recent scholarship that has illuminated the vibrant underlying dynamics of local civic engagement occurring amid the overshadowing political conservatism of the Reagan years. Also a case study in public history, this thesis demonstrates how collective historical memory fueled not only Del-AWARE’s protracted struggle, but its enduring legacy in public policy and community life. It concludes with suggestions for preserving the history of Del-AWARE before it is lost forever.
author: Friedman, Gail
language: eng
keywords: History, Public policy, Environmental studies, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, Community activism, Delaware River, Del-aware unlimited, Environmentalism, Public history
license: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
date published: 2016
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:20:27Z
provider: Temple University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Temple University. Libraries

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/1244