A History of Environmentalism: Local Struggles, Global Histories

Description

'Think globally, act locally' has become a call to environmentalist mobilization, proposing a closer connection between global concerns, local issues and individual responsibility. A History of Environmentalism explores this dialectic relationship, with ten contributors from a range of disciplines providing a history of environmentalism which frames global themes and narrates local stories. Each of the chapters in this volume addresses specific struggles in the history of environmental movements, for example over national parks, species protection, forests, waste, contamination, nuclear energy and expropriation. A diverse range of environments and environmental actors are covered, including the communities in the Amazonian Forest, the antelope in Tibet, atomic power plants in Europe and oil and politics in the Niger Delta. The chapters demonstrate how these conflicts make visible the intricate connections between local and global, the body and the environment, and power and nature. A History of Environmentalism tells us much about transformations of cultural perceptions and ways of production and consuming, as well as ecological and social changes. More than offering an exhaustive picture of the entire environmentalist movement, A History of Environmentalism highlights the importance of the experience of environmentalism within local communities. It offers a worldwide and polyphonic perspective, making it key reading for students and scholars of global and environmental history and political ecology.

Marco Armiero is Director of the Environmental Humanities Laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He is the co-editor of Nature and History in Modern Italy (2010), author of A Rugged Nation: Mountains and the Making of Modern Italy (2011) and a senior editor of the journal, Capitalism Nature Socialism. Lise Sedrez is Professor at the Instituto de Historia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of the book series 'Latin American Landscapes' and the editor of Topoi: Revista de Historia.

A History of Environmentalism is an important and much-need contribution to the field. [The introduction] offers a succinct, compelling, and beautifully written overview of not the environmental movement, as early scholarship in environmental history was so prone to invoke, but the diverse and plural environmental movements that have shaped thought and action across the globe. Dipping into the book, we are treated to a diversity of local stories and struggles... Taken as a whole, they illuminate how important the need is to share stories of environmental and social struggles with each other. * Gregg Mitman, Professor of History of Science, Medical History, and Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin, USA * [I]nformative, scholarly, well written and referenced. I couldn't put it down. The perspectives are excitingly innovative, the views are presented through unfamiliar perspectives and there is a wide variety of issues and of geographies. The interaction and interplay between global levels of activism and government, nations and society are interestingly revealed. The editors and authors have adopted a transnational approach and focus, even though chapters are local studies. The simple narratives are made complex - as good histories should - and the stereotypes of victim are deftly unpacked... I cannot think of a more appropriate book to introduce anyone to environmental justice. * Jane Carruthers, Professor Emeritus of History, University of South Africa * This collection of nine case histories, plus the editors' introduction, is an international endeavor. Armiero, Sedrez, and contributors from Europe, the US, China, and Australia cover a diverse range of topics. These include rethinking US national parks, saving Australia's Little Desert from agricultural development, oil pollution in Nigeria's Niger Delta, protecting Tibetan antelope from poachers, Greenpeace's unsuccessful attempt to save seal pups from pelt hunters, and Bhopal's struggle for adequate financial compensation after the 1984 pesticide disaster in a Union Carbide plant. ... Well-documented chapters, one illustration, two maps. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic and professional library collections. -- F. N. Egerton, University of Wisconsin-Parkside * CHOICE *