The Rise and Fall of OPEC in the Twentieth Century. By Garavini.GuilianoOxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. xiv + 420 pp. Illustrations, maps, charts, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $38.95.

Compassion is an action word with no boundaries.

THE FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY (FHS) maintains an extensive database of published sources related to environmental history. The “New Scholarship” section of this journal includes just a selection of the new information that the FHS library adds each quarter. The library indexes all entries in the database by topic, chronological period, and geographic area. The library staff will gladly provide additional

Sometimes, academic topics are personal. I grew up with the story, frequently told by my mother, about how she suffered from insomnia when pregnant with me, how she was happy that, earlier on, her doctor had prescribed a drug that helped her fall asleep in a particularly pleasant manner without any apparent side effects, and how one night she was horrified to find out that this drug was thalidomide

Indeed, I am guilty. I am, as Iris Borowy notes in her introduction to this forum, among those who have pointed mainly to capitalism when speaking of toxicity.1 I have argued that (necro-)capitalism reproduces itself through the contamination of people and places. In other words, the making of a toxic world is not an unwanted side effect of capitalism but, rather, its very way of functioning. With

When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, one common argument made to discredit her book and its criticism of the indiscriminate use of toxic pesticides was that many seemingly benign substances such as aspirin or salt were toxic if used incorrectly.11 This critique—voiced by industry spokesman Dr. Robert White Stevens and others—appeared ludicrous to Carson’s supporters insofar as it seemingly

Perhaps it is no coincidence that Iris Borowy opens her contribution to this forum by reflecting on the potential harm caused by her mother’s infrequent use of thalidomide as a prenatal sleeping aid. Much writing about toxins, and the concerns that humans face in a chemically saturated world, focuses on reproduction. Other historians and social scientists have offered similar (though often less personal)

This forum unites the articles of six scholars whose different, but complementary, approaches shed light on some key themes of the environmental history of toxicity. One recurrent line of questioning asks who is to blame for the steady increase in poisons in the global environment over the past century. While Marco Armiero identifies capitalism as the main driving force, Michelle Mart and Iris Borowy

It is 1944 in the oil fields of southern Louisiana. A woman stands at the stove in the kitchen of her home while her daughter Anna plays with Esso, the family’s cat, at the kitchen table (figure 1). The caption of the photograph identifies the woman simply as “Mrs. Moseley,” and she appears to be making coffee or tea at a stove that has been retrofitted with a gas range. The calendar on the wall displays

Environmental History, emab022, https://doi.org/10.1093/envhis/emab022

Abalone: The Remarkable History and Uncertain Future of California’s Iconic Shellfish. By VileisisAnn. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2020. 293 pp. Illustrations, graphs, notes and index. Paper $22.95, ebook $11.99.

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities. By SmilVaclav. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019. xxvi + 634 pp. Illustrations, graphs, charts, appendices, bibliography, and index. Cloth $39.95, paper $19.95.

Neptune’s Laboratory: Fantasy, Fear, and Science at Sea. By AdlerAntony. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2019. 256 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. Cloth $39.95.

Seeds of Power: Explorations in Ottoman Environmental History. Edited by İnalOnur and KöseYavuz. Cambridge: White Horse Press, 2019. 250 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $90.00.

Imperial Creatures: Humans and Other Animals in Colonial Singapore, 1819–1942. ByBarnardTimothy P..Kent Ridge: National University of Singapore Press, 2019. xiii + 264 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. Paper SG $36.00.

Deep Time Reckoning: How Future Thinking Can Help Earth Now. By IalentiVincent. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2020. xviii +186 pp. Notes, appendix, and index. Paper $25.00.

Nomad’s Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World. By DuffyAndrea E.. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2019. xxvi + 306 pp. Illustrations, map, tables, graphs, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $55.00.

Volkswagen in the Amazon: The Tragedy of Global Development in Modern Brazil. By AckerAntoine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017. xiv + 314 pp. Illustrations, notes, maps, figures, abbreviations, bibliography, and index. Cloth $105, paper $29.99, e-book $24.00.

Grinnell: America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West. By TaliaferroJohn. New York: Liveright Publishing, 2019. xviii + 606 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $35.00.

The Culture of Nature in the History of Design. Edited by FallanKjetil. New York: Routledge, 2019. 274 pp. Illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $112.00, paper $39.96, e-book $24.98.

This article describes a period when environmental organizations actively worked to achieve equal rights for women in the 1970s and 1980s. Using archival records from the Environmental Defense Fund and from women’s occupational health activists, I argue that a significant, if under-recognized, catalyst for environmentalists’ engagement with feminist politics was the emergence of workplace exclusion

The articles in this issue take us from the antebellum United States to a Soviet museum in Chelyabinsk in the wake of World War II, from the shores of a Guatemalan lake to ballast piles along Canada’s eastern seaboard. Along the way, readers encounter toxic legacies and courtroom drama. The issue begins with a forum on toxics and toxicants organized by Iris Borowy. Originally slotted for the April

This article argues that two prominent antebellum Black physicians—James McCune Smith and Martin Delany—developed competing scientific theories of nature’s impact on the human body in response to the climatic theories of the American Colonization Society, polygenist race scientists, and southern defenders of slavery. It further argues that the physicians’ divergent conclusions regarding nature’s agency

Environments of Empire: Networks and Agents of Ecological Change. Edited by KirchbergerUlrike and BennettBrett M. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2020. xi + 266 pp. Notes and index. Cloth $90.00, paper $29.95, e-book $22.90.

Mexico’s Community Forest Enterprises: Success on the Commons and the Seeds of a Good Anthropocene. By Barton BrayDavid. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020. xv + 292 pp. Maps, charts, tables, graphs, references, and index. Cloth $49.95, ebook $49.95.

Flax Americana: A History of the Fibre and Oil That Covered a Continent. By MacFaydenJoshua. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queens University Press, 2018. xvii + 350 pp. Illustrations, maps, charts, tables, graph, notes, and index. Paper CDN $34.95.

In the late 1920s, Guatemala embarked on environmental drainage projects aimed at eradicating mosquito breeding grounds. Designed to improve people’s lives, these efforts sometimes inadvertently undermined them, draining away water crucial to public hygiene campaigns. Although the goals of controlling malaria and expanding arable land were often in lockstep, the Guatemalan case of Lake Quinizilapa

Unravelled Dreams: Silk and the Atlantic World, 1500-1840. By MarshBen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. xiv + 487 487 pp. Illustrations, maps, charts, graphs, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $39.99.

Battles of the North Country: Wilderness Politics and Recreational Development in the Adirondack State Park, 1920-1980. By AnzaloneJonathan D.. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2018. xii + 280 280 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, and index. Cloth $90.00, paper $32.95.

THE FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY (FHS) maintains an extensive database of published sources related to environmental history. The “New Scholarship” section of this journal includes just a selection of the new information that the FHS library adds each quarter. The library indexes all entries in the database by topic, chronological period, and geographic area. The library staff will gladly provide additional

In November 1901, The Canadian Magazine prominently featured a reproduction of William McFarlane Notman’s photograph The Royal Party Shooting the Timber Slide (figure 1).11 Taking up an entire page of the issue, a halftone reproduction of the photograph was included as part of the magazine’s extensive coverage of the 1901 British royal tour of Canada.22 The image shows the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall

AbstractNo industry had a more profound impact on the environment and communities of northern Vietnam than coal mining. Following the French discovery of the vast Quảng Yên coal basin in the early 1880s, Tonkin, a small French protectorate in northern Vietnam, rose to become one of the world's largest coal exporters. Large-scale coal mining denuded forests, fashioned massive open-pit wastelands, and

AbstractBetween 1965 and 1980, disposable diapers became the norm among middle-class American families, altering resource flows as they became more popular. Diapers crafted from wood and water of the United States, primarily from the South—rather than that region’s cotton—covered infant bottoms. The turn to single-use diapers also transformed knowledge production. For the first half of the twentieth

David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet. Directed by FothergillAlastair. Altitude Film Entertainment/Silverback Films/World Wildlife Fund, 2020. 83 minutes.

AbstractThis article examines the relationship between imperial hunting and the sublime through the historical analysis of race, caste, and aesthetics in the Central Himalayas. Reading Raja Rudra Deva's sixteenth-century Śyainika Śāstra against the career of nineteenth-century timber merchant Frederick Wilson, it argues that the bodies of the courtly hawker and the imperial sportsman simultaneously

Scarcity in the Modern World: History, Politics, Society, and Sustainability, 1800-2075. Edited by JonssonFredrik Albritton, BrewerJohn, FromerNeil, and TrentmannFrank. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. xiv + 294 pp. Illustrations, charts, tables, graphs, notes, and index. Cloth $115.00, ebook $82.80.

There’s Something in the Water. Directed by PageEllen and DanielIan. 2 Weeks Notice, 2019. 70 mins.

The Ecolaboratory: Environmental Governance and Economic Development in Costa Rica. By FletcherRobert, Dowd-UribeBrian, and AistaraGuntra A.. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2020. ix + 373 pp. Maps, graphs, tables, charts, notes, index, and bibliography. Cloth $70.00, ebook $70.00.

The Nature of Hope: Grassroots Organizing, Environmental Justice, and Political Change. Edited by MillerChar and CraneJeff. Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2018. viii + 353 pp. Notes and index. Paper $34.95.

Seeds of Control: Japan’s Empire of Forestry in Colonial Korea. By FedmanDavid. Seattle:University of Washington Press, 2020. xvii + 292 pp. Maps, illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $40.00.

Dark Waters. Directed by Todd Haynes. Focus Features, 2019. 126 Minutes

The Other Oregon: People, Environment, and History East of the Cascades. By CoxThomas R.. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2019. xvii + 398 398 pp. Maps, illustrations, bibliography, and index. Paper $29.95, ebook $29.95.

Theodore Roosevelt, Naturalist in the Arena. Edited by MillerCharJenkinson.Clay S.Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2020. xxiv + 234 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. Paper $24.95.

In his Faunal Connections between Europe and North America (1957), a landmark study of ecological introductions from Europe to North America that prefigured Alfred Crosby’s Columbian Exchange by three decades, Carl Lindroth sought to explain the distribution of fauna and particularly insects across the North Atlantic. It was the culmination of a multi-year investigation begun in 1949 that had seen

One year after the German surrender in World War II, an exhibition about the “Great Patriotic War” opened its doors in the regional museum of Chelyabinsk. The curators presented the visitors with a geological take on the war events: the exhibition employed a geological time frame, which started with the genesis of planet Earth, and displayed a large introductory section on natural resources of the

The Nature of the Future: Agriculture, Science, and Capitalism in the Antebellum North. By PawleyEmily. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2020. 301301 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. Cloth $50.00, ebook $50.00.

Indigenous Prosperity and American Conquest: Indian Women of the Ohio River Valley, 1690–1792. By Sleeper-SmithSusan. Chapel Hill: Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press, 2018. x + 348 pp. Illustrations, notes, tables, bibliography, and index. Cloth $45 Cloth, paperback $27.95

Swamp Souths: Literary and Cultural Ecologies. Edited bySquintKirstin L.AndersonEric GaryHagoodTaylorWilsonAnthony. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2020. xiv + 303 303 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $55.00.

The second issue of 2021 again features essays from around the world, with an impressive variety of methodologies, approaches, and temporal foci, reflecting the continued vitality of the fields of environmental and forest history. Mexican hydraulic infrastructure is developed and migrant flows shift; Vietnamese forests are exploited and coal enters the global market; Himalayan hawks find their prey

Powering Empire: How Coal Made the Middle East and Sparked Global Carbonization By BarakOn. Oakland, California: University of California Press, 2020. xvi + 321 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $34.95, e-Book $34.95.

Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It. By PhilpottTom. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. 246 246 pp. Graphs, notes, and index. Cloth $28.00, e-book $19.60.

AbstractA long intellectual tradition holds that gathering local waste, turning it into compost, and applying it to fields can remind us of ostensibly natural connections among humans, animals, and plants. Yet, in the nineteenth century, physiological reformers led by Sylvester Graham saw the application of manure as an overstimulating, prurient, noxious, and unnatural practice with consequences for

Most recent books about Appalachia speak to its capitalist transformation, whether that series of events is set during the rule of the British Empire or after the Civil War. Appalachia offers a case unlike that of New England or New York City. But, as soon as we make this distinction, we enter the realm of models and ideas. Since organizing work in order to produce capital follows patterns that extend

What if you love your place, but your place, or rather, the fellow inhabitants of your place, object to honest expressions of LGBTQ identity? Perhaps you grew up in a rural area, learned to garden, to savor the quiet, the wooded hillsides, the spring wildflowers, the grazing livestock in the fields, but can only enjoy the companionship of other queer folks by driving an hour or two to the nearest gay

THE FOREST HISTORY SOCIETY (FHS) maintains an extensive database of published sources related to environmental history. The “New Scholarship” section of this journal includes just a selection of the new information that the FHS library adds each quarter. The library indexes all entries in the database by topic, chronological period, and geographic area. The library staff will gladly provide additional

Appalachia was “a mysterious realm,” Horace Kephart wrote to explain his decision to leave a library job in St. Louis for the wilds of western North Carolina at the start of Our Southern Highlanders (1913), his influential account of the southern mountains. “Had I been going to Teneriffe or Timbuctu, the libraries would have furnished information a-plenty; but about this housetop of eastern America

Esther Cunningham launched my scholarly journey into Appalachian environmental history from her Blue Ridge living room. She spoke and I listened as we sat among family photos and handmade afghans that recorded some of her life’s work, while, through the window, a view over grassy fields to distant wooded ridges hinted at the parts that I aimed to record. Cunningham’s reputation as an environmental-defense

This forum offers insights into the burgeoning subfield of Appalachian environmental history. In the introductory essay, Drew Swanson offers a thumbnail sketch of the subfield’s historiographic development, paying particular attention to its major themes, to areas ripe for further exploration, and to its relationship to the field of Appalachian studies. Shorter response essays by Steven Stoll, Kathryn

The articles in the January 2021 issue examine often neglected bits of the natural world: insects and weeds. Easy to take for granted, the miniature actors in the articles by Diogo de Carvalho Cabral, Jennifer Bonnell, and Benjamin Siegel demonstrate how small and unwanted things can very much shape the settings in which human history unfolded. The kans grass discussed by Siegel preoccupied agronomists

How Not to Make a Human: Pets, Feral Children, Worms, Sky Burial, Oysters. By SteelKarl. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2019. 280 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $108.00, paper $27.00.