The Age of Smoke

This book is based on an immense amount of source and literature research and is well written. In sum, Uekoetter's book fills a big void in environmental history.

Offer[s] unique insights . . . Environmentalists as well as those with interests in German and U.S. history will gain much from this work.

Elegantly written. The myth Uekoetter most effectively debunks is the belief that successful pollutant control only began with the modern environmental movement. He is one of several contemporary environmental historians looking seriously at Progressive-Era efforts at conservation, preservation, and protoenvironmentalism to make the link between earlier efforts and present day ones.

Perhaps most notable is Uekoetter's eloquent historical critique of the instinctive tendency among some environmentalists to view industry as an implacable foe rather than potential collaborator in the reduction of air pollution. Industrialists and engineers often acted as valued partners in smoke-abatement efforts; the account he presents is therefore not one that pits ecological concerns firmly against economic interests. If there is a lesson to be learned from the 'age of smoke,' it is, according to Uekoetter, the importance of compromise and cooperation achieving real environmental improvements.

Readily reveals the remarkable amount of research Uekoetter undertook on two continents in preparing this book. Simply in undertaking this large and difficult task, Uekoetter's work is an accomplishment.

An ambitious work . . . uniquely expansive. The expanse [leads] directly to his interesting conclusions. After decades of writing municipal and regional histories, it is time for environmental historians to broaden their scope, and to think about the age of environmentalism in the way that Uekoetter approaches 'The Age of Smoke.'

Ambitious, clearly written, and thoroughly documented . . . a worthy addition to any environmental historian's bookshelf.

This book proves to be extremely rich in information on a problem still largely absent from French historiography of the twentieth century and increases the knowledge of the real fight against pollution before the environmental turn of 1970. It offers a nuanced and renewed vision of the role of the industrialists, [who were] not necessarily opposed to the fight against air pollution when they were able to make a profit. The diversity of the actors studied is worth highlighting; the geographic differences are also very interesting . . . . The economic and industrial boom of 1880-1970 not only 'went up in smoke,' it generated numerous documents on the environmental flip side of the coin of 'progress' and 'growth' which still need to be explored.

Marks a minor victory in environmental historians' long struggle for relevance. . . .What distinguishes 'The Age of Smoke' from other pollution histories is a reliance on organizational and comparative approaches. . . . well-written and meticulously researched.