Nature and the Iron Curtain

At the edge of yet another apocalypse, in the midst of wars, political turbulence, and ecological crisis, Astrid Mignon Kirchhof and J.R. McNeill bring us back to another time of great anxiety for the future of the planet. Through a compelling exploration of the two sides of the Iron Curtain, with a unique richness of first-hand research, Kirchhof and McNeill show the divergent and convergent paths of environmentalism and its intertwinement with national stories and global trends. The result is a unique history book which offers original insights into the Cold War but, hopefully, it will also tell us something about our (possible) futures.

Historians have tended to replicate the Cold War divide in their writings. Nature and the Iron Curtain innovatively overcomes such limitations by comparing the experience of environmentalism and environmental policy in both East and West. The book makes visible some surprising similarities and connections across the systems divide.

This breakthrough collection strikingly revises our understanding of how environmental science and policy evolved under free-market and managed economies during the Cold War. It especially highlights the surprisingly varied interactions among environmental planners East and West across the porous Iron Curtain, even before the political thaw of the 1980s.