Paperback / softback | |
February 16, 2015 | |
9780295994826 | |
English | |
360 | |
27 illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
.95 Pounds (US) | |
$24.95 USD, £18.99 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Pests in the City
Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats
Community activists and social reformers strived to control pests in cities such as Washington, DC, Chicago, Baltimore, New York, and Milwaukee, but such efforts fell short when authorities blamed families and neighborhood culture for infestations rather than attacking racial segregation or urban disinvestment. Pest-control campaigns tended to target public or private spaces, but pests and pesticides moved readily across the porous boundaries between homes and neighborhoods.
This story of flies, bedbugs, cockroaches, and rats reveals that such creatures thrived on lax code enforcement and the marginalization of the poor, immigrants, and people of color. As Biehler shows, urban pests have remained a persistent problem at the intersection of public health, politics, and environmental justice, even amid promises of modernity and sustainability in American cities.
Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG9PFxLY7K4&feature=c4-overview&list=UUge4MONgLFncQ1w1C_BnHcw
About the Authors
Reviews
"In her meticulous and thoughtful analysis of urban environmental injustice, Biehler deftly illustrates how these pests continue to undermine aspirations for modern and healthy living conditions for all."—Frederick R. Davis, Science
"As long as you do not read this book in your kitchen, your bedroom, your bathroom, or really anywhere that you actually live or work, you will be fine. All kidding aside, Dawn Day Biehler's Pests in the City: Flies, Bedbugs, Cockroaches, and Rats is not for the squeamish or for those prone to the heebie-jeebies; what it is, though, is a fascinating exploration of the entanglements between urban life, class, race, and gender identities, and nonhumans classified as pests."—Julie Urbanik, H-Net
"[This] exemplary work of interdisciplinary history . . . demonstrates how the ecologies of these pests and the efforts to eliminate them were intertwined with social tensions and political struggles throughout the twentieth century."—Joanna Dyl, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
"Biehler demystifies how pest populations have been systematically mapped onto marginalized populations and illustrates a history that has been largely neglected...the book is accessible to non-professional readers as it is a quick and simple read that is nevertheless extremely informative."—Mia Renauld, Human Ecology
Endorsements
"Re-centering the narrative about the origins of Rachel Carson's famous book, Dawn Day Biehler successfully opens a new perspective, less about the pesticides - a history we assume we know - and more about the pests themselves. In so doing, Pests in the City illuminates critical points in the twentieth-century interaction between ecology and public health. Its original and compelling blend of themes and questions make it likely to join environmental history's most innovative ranks."—Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University
"The environmental history of people and animals has for too long focused on charismatic megafauna - wolves, grizzlies, cougars - when in fact the day-to-day lives of a great many people are much more intimately involved with less fearsome but rather more troublesome creatures. In this fascinating and important book, Dawn Day Biehler brilliantly demonstrates how much we can learn about environmental politics and social justice by studying the animals who share our urban homes with us."—William Cronon
Paperback / softback | |
February 16, 2015 | |
9780295994826 | |
English | |
360 | |
27 illus. | |
9.00 Inches (US) | |
6.00 Inches (US) | |
.95 Pounds (US) | |
$24.95 USD, £18.99 GBP | |
v2.1 Reference | |
Other Titles by William Cronon
Native Seattle, second edition
Conservation in the Progressive Era
A Storied Wilderness
Other Titles by Paul S. Sutter
Wetlands in a Dry Land
Bringing Whales Ashore
Cultivating Nature
Other Titles from Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books
Fire, second edition
Burning Bush
Vestal Fire
Other Titles in NATURE / Animals / Insects & Spiders
Pacific Northwest Insects
The Sting of the Wild
Insects
Other Titles in Forestry & related industries
Ecology and Empire
Toward a Sustainable Whaling Regime
Northwest Passage, revised edition