"The Forbidden Fuel" is the definitive history of alcohol fuel, describing in colorful detail the emergence of alcohol fuel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the political and economic forces behind its popularity, opposition, and eventual growth. In 1982, when "The Forbidden Fuel" was first published, approximately 350 million gallons of ethanol were produced in the United States for transport fuel. In 2008 that number had grown to 9 billion gallons--an approximate average annual growth rate of 98.9 percent. Similar dramatic growth has occurred all over the world, especially in Brazil. This new edition examines the forces behind this explosive growth; it also presents fresh evidence that the controversial issues that were presciently foreseen and described in the 1982 edition--limits of the land, food versus fuel, environmental risks, and global warming--still persist as unabated challenges to industry leaders and policy makers.

"This is a good treatment of a very timely topic. The historical detail the authors amass here is impressive and the case studies are both interesting and instructive. The strengths of the book are its interesting and original documentation of the role of different interest groups and their relationship with the media, and the contextual treatment of the evidence presented in the book." K. Viswanath, School of Journalism, The Ohio State University Throughout the history of the environmental movement--from the mid-19th century to Rachel Carson in the 1960s--the mass media, the environmentalists, the government, and various power groups have interacted on many levels to effect social change. In Mass Media and Environmental Conflict, the authors emphasize these interactions using a series of case studies of environmental conflicts that have occurred in American history. This innovative new text explores the role of books, magazines, newspaper articles, and other media and the ways they have created both regional and national communities of environmental understanding. Authors Mark Neuzil and William Kovarik fold together early environmental groups, the mass media, the bureaucratic power structure, and the social system of each period, examining battles over public land, wild animals, clean air, and workplace hazards. Other topics covered in the book include Yosemite, Yellowstone, and America's national parks; species depletion and the evolution of hunting regulations; muckrakers and the great Alaskan land fraud; Hetch Hetchy and the first big dam controversy; the 1920's ethyl gasoline debate; and workplace toxins and the Radium Girls. Focusing on the growth of the environmental movement and its not so silent partner--the media, Mass Media and Environmental Conflict is an important work that will interest students and researchers in communication, media studies, environmental studies, public policy, sociology, and political science.