Overview
By examining environmental change through the lens of conflicting social agendas, Andrew Hurley uncovers the historical roots of environmental inequality in contemporary urban America. Hurley's study focuses on the steel mill community of Gary, Indiana, a city that was sacrificed, like a thousand other American places, to industrial priorities in the decades following World War II. Although this period witnessed the emergence of a powerful environmental crusade and a resilient quest for equality and social justice among blue-collar workers and African Americans, such efforts often conflicted with the needs of industry. To secure their own interests, manufacturers and affluent white suburbanites exploited divisions of race and class, and the poor frequently found themselves trapped in deteriorating neighborhoods and exposed to dangerous levels of industrial pollution.
In telling the story of Gary, Hurley reveals liberal capitalism's difficulties in reconciling concerns about social justice and quality of life with the imperatives of economic growth. He also shows that the power to mold the urban landscape was intertwined with the ability to govern social relations.
Editorials
From the Publisher
The book is founded on solid research and is a pleasure to read.Choice "An important, provocative analysis."—###Labor History# "This book is clearly written, carefully researched, and as a result is a compelling condemnation of the power of industrial capital to shape the human and natural environment to its own end. Gary's poor and black residents, as Hurley makes clear, have been and are dying for a better environment."—-###Indiana Magazine of History# "Andrew Hurley has written an important case study of grass-roots environmental agitation and policy making in Gary, Indiana. His focus on environmental inequalities is particularly useful as scholars and activists pay more attention to urban environmental issues and the environment and social justice."—Clayton R. Koppes, Oberlin College "A thoughtful, important book. It furthers our understanding of race and class issues by exploring how they are played out in the struggle for a clean, healthy environment."—Theodore Steinberg, New Jersey Institute of Technology
A devastating critique of American corporate capitalism, made all the more impressive by its meticulous scholarship.
Journal of American History
A book which will quickly become the standard reference in the field.
Journal of Social History
A model for the historical assessment of how environmental inequalities become established over time in a specific locality.
Environmental History
Hurley's book is a sophisticated and persuasive piece of environmental history.
American Historical Review