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The Japanese surprise attack on U.S. forces in Hawaii on December 7, 1941, came as a tremendous shock to Americans. Accustomed to success and victory in every aspect of life, they found the Pearl Harbor disaster nearly impossible to understand. Thus, almost immediately the search began for a simple explanation why the United States was unprepared and why it should succumb in battle to a foe long considered inferior. The Shadow of Pearl Harbor analyzes the resulting controversy, which pitted the Democratic administration against congressional Republicans. In an atmosphere of insecurity and suspicion brought on by the greatest naval defeat ever suffered by the United States, Roosevelt's critics demanded a full public disclosure of information about the causes of the debacle. Fearing a volatile partisan confrontation that such public disclosure might inspire, the Democratic administration tried to silence its critics by shelving the issue for the duration of the war and by keeping national attention fixed on the war effort. Retreating behind the veil of "national security," the executive branch initiated a cover-up of the Pearl Harbor case, sustained by the conclusions of pro-administration investigations, and made scapegoats of the Hawaiian commanders, Admiral Husband Kimmel and General Walter Short. Martin V. Melosi has studied in detail each of those investigations and the political infighting between the administration and its opponents. His focus is the extent to which Roosevelt and his high officials succeeded, or failed, to minimize the domestic impact of the Pearl Harbor defeat and keep blame away from themselves.
Garbage, wastewater, hazardous waste: these are the lenses through which Melosi views nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. In broad overviews and specific case studies, Melosi treats the relationship between industrial expansion and urban growth from an ecological perspective.
Immersed in their on-demand, highly consumptive, and disposable
lifestyles, most urban Americans take for granted the technologies
that provide them with potable water, remove their trash, and
process their wastewater. These vital services, however, are the
byproduct of many decades of development by engineers, sanitarians,
and civic planners.
As an essential resource, water has been the object of warfare,
political wrangling, and individual and corporate abuse. It has
also become an object of commodification, with multinational
corporations vying for water supply contracts in many countries. In
"Precious Commodity, " Martin V. Melosi examines water resources in
the United States and addresses whether access to water is an
inalienable right of citizens, and if government is responsible for
its distribution as a public good.
The emerging environmental justice movement has created greater awareness among scholars that communities from all over the world suffer from similar environmental inequalities. This volume takes up the challenge of linking the focussed campaigns and insights from African American campaigns for environmental justice with the perspectives of this global group of environmentally marginalized groups. The editorial team has drawn on Washington's work, on Paul Rosier's study of Native American environmentalism, and on Heather Goodall's work with Indigenous Australians to seek out wider perspectives on the relationships between memories of injustice and demands for environmental justice in the global arena. This collection contributes to environmental historiography by providing "bottom up" environmental histories in a field which so far has mostly emphasized a "top down" perspective, in which the voices of those most heavily burdened by environmental degradation are often ignored. The essays here serve as a modest step in filling this lacuna in environmental history by providing the viewpoints of peoples and of indigenous communities which traditionally have been neglected while linking them to a global context of environmental activism and education. Scholars of environmental justice, as much as the activists in their respective struggle, face challenges in working comparatively to locate the differences between local struggles as well as to celebrate their common ground. In this sense, the chapters in this book represent the opening up of spaces for future conversations rather than any simple ending to the discussion. The contributions, however, reflect growing awareness of that common ground and a rising need to employ linked experiences and strategies in combating environmental injustice on a global scale, in part by mimicking the technology and tools employed by global corporations that endanger the environmental integrity of a diverse set of homelands and ecologies.
The emerging environmental justice movement has created greater awareness among scholars that communities from all over the world suffer from similar environmental inequalities. This volume takes up the challenge of linking the focussed campaigns and insights from African American campaigns for environmental justice with the perspectives of this global group of environmentally marginalized groups. The editorial team has drawn on Washington's work, on Paul Rosier's study of Native American environmentalism, and on Heather Goodall's work with Indigenous Australians to seek out wider perspectives on the relationships between memories of injustice and demands for environmental justice in the global arena. This collection contributes to environmental historiography by providing 'bottom up' environmental histories in a field which so far has mostly emphasized a 'top down' perspective, in which the voices of those most heavily burdened by environmental degradation are often ignored. The essays here serve as a modest step in filling this lacuna in environmental history by providing the viewpoints of peoples and of indigenous communities which traditionally have been neglected while linking them to a global context of environmental activism and education. Scholars of environmental justice, as much as the activists in their respective struggle, face challenges in working comparatively to locate the differences between local struggles as well as to celebrate their common ground. In this sense, the chapters in this book represent the opening up of spaces for future conversations rather than any simple ending to the discussion. The contributions, however, reflect growing awareness of that common ground and a rising need to employ linked experiences and strategies in combating environmental injustice on a global scale, in part by mimicking the technology and tools employed by global corporations that endanger the environmental integrity of a diverse set of homelands and ecologies.
As recently as the 1880s, most American cities had no effective means of collecting and removing the mountains of garbage, refuse, and manure-over a thousand tons a day in New York City alone-that clogged streets and overwhelmed the senses of residents. In his landmark study, Garbage in the Cities, Martin Melosi offered the first history of efforts begun in the Progressive Era to clean up this mess. Since it was first published, Garbage in the Cities has remained one of the best historical treatments of the subject. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes two new chapters that expand the discussion of developments since World War I. It also offers a discussion of the reception of the first edition, and an examination of the ways solid waste management has become more federally regulated in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Melosi traces the rise of sanitation engineering, accurately describes the scope and changing nature of the refuse problem in U.S. cities, reveals the sometimes hidden connections between industrialization and pollution, and discusses the social agendas behind many early cleanliness programs. Absolutely essential reading for historians, policy analysts, and sociologists, Garbage in the Cities offers a vibrant and insightful analysis of this fascinating topic.
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