Consumption and Waste in American Environmental History

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-39764-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 348 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 800 g

Reihe: Themes in Environmental History

Consumption and Waste in American Environmental History is an accessible introduction to the consumption experience, wasting practices, and disposal history of the United States, spanning precontact to the present.

Centered around concise case studies, the book confronts consumption and consumerism and assesses the impact of solid and hazardous wastes from political, economic, social, and especially environmental perspectives. The overarching relationship among consumption, waste, and climate change is woven throughout the book, identifying key questions and themes in United States environmental history. Each chapter explores a specific element of consumption and waste, including the commodification of humans and animals; depletion of resources; the role of immigrants, women, and people of color in sanitation services and as sanitary and environmental activists; salvaging and recycling; environmental justice; e-waste; plastics; space junk; and more.

With a broad chronology and a variety of relevant topics, this volume is an engaging resource for undergraduate and graduate students in American history, environmental history, and sustainability studies.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Melosi, Martin V.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  Part 1: Precontact  1. Middens in Precontact America  Part 2: Pre-Industrial America  2. The Great American Bison Extermination  3. Yankee Whaling in the 19th Century  4. Pigs and Horses in the Cities  5. African Slaves in Antebellum Plantations  6. Deforestation in Early Pennsylvania  7. Marshes as Wastelands in Early Louisiana  Part 3: The Industrial Revolution and Urbanization  8. Immigrants and Garbage: Scow Trimmers, Rag Pickers, and the Juvenile Street Cleaning League  9. Municipal Housekeeping: Sanitary Reform and Gender Roles  10. The Goodwill and the Salvation Army: Recycling Goods and Saving Souls  11. The Great Gatsby and the Valley of Ashes  Part 4: The Modern Consumer Culture  12. Slaughter of the Little Pigs: New Deal Planned Scarcity  13. The Fresno Sanitary Landfill  14. Salvaging, Recycling, and Rationing as Patriotism in World War II  15. The Berkeley Pit: On Butte’s Richest Hill on Earth  16. Consumerism and Planned Obsolescence  17. Garbage Grinders in Suburbia  Part 5: Into the New Frontier  18. The 1968 New York City and Memphis Garbage Strikes  19. The Crying Indian and Greenwashing  20. Women, Civic Activism, and Love Canal  21. Warren County and Environmental Justice  22. The Mobro 4000: Barge to Nowhere  Part 6: The 21st Century  23. Yucca Mountain and Nuclear Waste  24. E-Waste in the Electronics Age  25. Fresh Kills, 2001: From Landfill to Cemetery  26. Plastics in the Oceans  27. Space Junk  Postscript: Zero Waste and the Circular Economy

Über Autor(innen)

Martin V. Melosi is Cullen Professor Emeritus of History and Founding Director of the Center for Public History at the University of Houston, USA. He is the author or editor of twenty-three books and more than 100 articles and book chapters in the fields of environmental, urban, energy, and public history.