Books

Calls for an Honest Reckoning of the Successes, Failures, and Unanticipated Results of International Developments

Dissects a Global Environmental Legacy That Will Shape Policies in the New Millennium

The Complete Story of the Worst Air Pollution Disaster in US History

Debunks Myths of the Green Revolution with a Long-Awaited Critique of Wide Adaptation

An overview of scholarly research, both published and previously unpublished, on the history of a city that has often served as a case study for measuring social change. It synthesizes the literature and assesses how that knowledge relates to our broader understanding of the processes of urbanization and urbanism.

Environmental History, formerly Environmental History Review, has helped define an entire discipline through the publication of the finest scholarship of humanists, social and natural scientists, and a variety of other professionals. Out of the Woods gathers the best of this scholarship.

Written almost half a century ago, this book offers an invaluable history of the conservation movement’s origins, and provides an excellent context for understanding contemporary enviromental problems and possible solutions. This book defines two conflicting political processes: the demand for an integrated, controlled development guided by an elite group of scientists and technicians and the demand for a looser system allowing grassroots impulses to have a voice through elected representatives.

Conquering Nature, the only book-length analysis of the environmental situation in Cuba after four decades of socialist rule, is based on extensive examination of secondary sources and informed by the study of development and environmental trends in former socialist countries as well as in the developing world.

Winner of the 2002 Warren Dean Memorial Award from Environmentl History of Latin America.

Models of Nature studies the early and turbulent years of the Soviet conservation movement from the October Revolution to the mid-1930s—Lenin’s rule to the rise of Stalin. This new edition includes an afterword by the author that reflects upon the study’s impact and discusses advances in the field since the book was first published.

An overview of contemporary environmental affairs, from 1940s to the present—with an emphasis on nature in an urbanized society, land developments, environmental technology, the structure of environmental politics, environmental opposition, and the results of environmental policy.

From prehistoric midden building to late twentieth century industrial pollution, Transforming New Orleans and Its Environs traces through history the impact of human activity upon the environment of this fascinating and unpredictable region.

This revised edition of a seminal work in the field of urban environmental history traces the development of waste management and related technologies from the Progressive Era to the present.

Examines the natural and economic resource competition between Phoenix and Tucson and the other factors contributing to the divergent growth of the two cities.

Martin V. Melosi assembles a comprehensive, thoroughly researched and referenced history of sanitary services in urban America. He examines the evolution of water supply, sewage systems, and solid waste disposal during three distinct eras: The Age of Miasmas (pre-1880); The Bacteriological Revolution (1880-1945); and The New Ecology (1945 to present-day). This abridged edition includes updated text and bibliographic materials. The Sanitary City is an essential resource for those interested in environmental history, environmental engineering, science and technology, urban studies, and public health.

Winner of: George Perkins Marsh Prize from the American Society for Environmental History Urban History Association Prize for the best book in North American Urban HistoryAbel Wolman Prize from the Public Works Historical SocietySidney Edelstein Prize from the Society for the History of Technology

This book presents one of the first comparative histories of rivers on the continents of Europe and North America in the modern age. The contributors examine the impact of rivers on humans and, conversely, the impact of humans on rivers. They view this dynamic relationship through political, cultural, industrial, social, and ecological perspectives in national and transnational settings. Contributors analyze the regional, national, and international politicization of rivers, the use and treatment of waterways in urban versus rural environments, and the increasing role of international commissions in ecological and commercial legislation for the protection of river resources. Case studies include the Seine in Paris, the Mississippi, the Volga, the Rhine, and the rivers of Pittsburgh.