This is not a typical account of American environmental history. Though
many books in this genre begin and end with wilderness and wildlife,
the city and its inhabitants take center stage in
Environment and the People in American Cities.
This book focuses on the city because the city provides some important
clues to understanding the evolution of American environmental
activism. It also provides an important context in which to understand
early environmental activists, the issues they fought, and the way in
which they perceived the environment.
The city is an under-studied component of the environment, yet it is
the place where human labor was exploited to transform the forests into
pavements and buildings. In the city, intellectuals theorized about the
relationship between health and open space, and reformers sought to
improve quality of life for the poor. To understand urban
environmentalism, one has to understand how cities grew and changed
over time; the tensions between groups of European immigrants, the
upper class and the poor, whites and minorities, and the quest to
establish order (both within the population and on the environment).
Consequently, this book focuses on the evolution of the city, emergence
of elite reformers, the framing of environmental problems, and
responses to the perceived breakdown in social order. The book draws
our attention to some of the environmental challenges faced by American
cities as they developed. There are some similarities between the
problems facing older cities and the cities of today. Likewise there
are some similarities in ideology and policy prescriptions of past and
present leaders engaged in urban reform.
This book examines seven major thrusts in urban environmental activism:
(a)
alleviation of poverty and improved quality of life, (b) sanitary
reform and public health; (c) safe, affordable and adequate housing;
(d)
parks, playgrounds and open space; (e) occupational health and safety;
(f) consumer protection – food and product safety, and (g) land use and
urban planning.
This book also provides an historical
analysis of the way race, class and gender shapes environmental
experiences, perceptions, activism, and the construction of
environmental discourses.
In addition to the experiences,
ideologies and accomplishments of upper and middle class white males,
the book examines the experiences and activism of women, the poor and
people of color.
Environment and the People in American Cities tells a unique and compelling story about the American urban environment.