Press Release

Professor Taylor explores history of environmental justice in American cities in new book

ANN ARBOR, MI, November 6, 2009This book is published by Duke University Press

A new book from a University of Michigan professor explores how the centuries-old connections between racism and the environment in American cities.

"The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change" was written by Dorceta Taylor, a professor at the School of Natural Resources and Environment and director of an institute studying the issue of environmental justice its modern context. Duke University Press plans to release the book this month.

The first of two extensive books on conservation history and environmental justice, "The Environment and the People in American Cities" provides a sweeping and detailed examination of the evolution of American cities from Colonial New York and Boston to recent urban planning and labor reform efforts, outlining the rise of problems like overcrowding, pollution, poverty and epidemics and connecting them to systemic environmental racism and other forms of environmental inequities.

"The book takes on this very daunting and long timeline because it is important in getting readers to understand how the cities evolved and how the environmental needs of the cities changed over time," Professor Taylor said.