The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s

Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change

Autor: Taylor, Dorceta E.
Editor: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822344360
eISBN Pdf: 9780822392248
Lloc de publicació: Durham , United States
Any de publicació digital: 2009
Mes: Novembre
Pàgines: 640
DDC: 307.760973
Idioma: Anglés

Descripció

In The Environment and the People in American Cities, Dorceta E. Taylor provides an in-depth examination of the development of urban environments, and urban environmentalism, in the United States. Taylor focuses on the evolution of the city, the emergence of elite reformers, the framing of environmental problems, and the perceptions of and responses to breakdowns in social order, from the seventeenth century through the twentieth. She demonstrates how social inequalities repeatedly informed the adjudication of questions related to health, safety, and land access and use. While many accounts of environmental history begin and end with wildlife and wilderness, Taylor shows that the city offers important clues to understanding the evolution of American environmental activism.

Taylor traces the progression of several major thrusts in urban environmental activism, including the alleviation of poverty; sanitary reform and public health; safe, affordable, and adequate housing; parks, playgrounds, and open space; occupational health and safety; consumer protection (food and product safety); and land use and urban planning. At the same time, she presents a historical analysis of the ways race, class, and gender shaped experiences and perceptions of the environment as well as environmental activism and the construction of environmental discourses. Throughout her analysis, Taylor illuminates connections between the social and environmental conflicts of the past and those of the present. She describes the displacement of people of color for the production of natural open space for the white and wealthy, the close proximity between garbage and communities of color in early America, the cozy relationship between middle-class environmentalists and the business community, and the continuous resistance against environmental inequalities on the part of ordinary residents from marginal communities.

Contents
Figures, Tables, and Boxes
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I The Condition of the City
- One - The Evolution of American Cities
- Two - Epidemics, Cities, and Environmental Reform
Part II Reforming the City
- Three - Wealthy Urbanites: Fleeing Downtown and Privatizing Green Space
- Four - Social Inequality and the Quest for Order in the City
- Five - Data Gathering as a Mechanism for Understanding the City and Imposing Order
- Six - Sanitation and Housing Reform
Part III Urban Parks, Order, and Social Reform
- Seven - Conceptualizing and Framing Urban Parks
- Eight - Elite Ideology, Activism, and Park Development
- Nine - Social Class, Activism, and Park Use
- Ten - Contemporary Efforts to Finance Urban Parks
Part IV The Rise of Comprehensive Zoning
- Eleven - Class, Race, Space, and Zoning in America
- Twelve - Land Use and Zoning in American Cities
Part V Reforming the Workplace and Reducing Community Hazards
- Thirteen - Workplace and Community Hazards
- Fourteen - The Industrial Workplace
Conclusion
Notes
Index