Nature at war : American environments and World War II
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Nature at war : American environments and World War II
Cambridge University Press, 2020
- : hardback
Available at 2 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This anthology is the first sustained examination of American involvement in World War II through an environmental lens. World War II was a total and global war that involved the extraction, processing, and use of vast quantities of natural resources. The wartime military-industrial complex, the 'Arsenal of Democracy,' experienced tremendous economic growth and technological development, employing resources at a higher intensity than ever before. The war years witnessed transformations in American agriculture; the proliferation of militarized landscapes; the popularization of chemical and pharmaceutical products; a rapid increase in energy consumption and the development of nuclear energy; a remaking of the nation's transportation networks; a shift in population toward the Sunbelt and the West Coast; a vast expansion in the federal government, in conjunction with industrial firms; and the emergence of environmentalism. World War II represented a quantitative and qualitative leap in resource use, with lasting implications for American government, science, society, health, and ecology.
Table of Contents
- Preface: American environments and the Second World War Peter Mansoor
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: total war and American nature Thomas Robertson and Richard P. Tucker
- Part I. New Weapons, New Spaces: 1. A war of mobility: transportation, American productive power, and the environment during World War II Thomas Robertson and Christopher W. Wells
- 2. For land's sake: World War II military land acquisition and alteration Jean Mansavage
- Part II. Military Materials I (Inorganic): 3. 'Tanks Are Born Underground': mining and World War II Kent Curtis
- 4. Fueling the 'American Century': establishing the US petroleum imperative Brian Black
- Part III. Military Materials II (Organic): 5. Soldiers of the soil: labor, nature, and American agriculture during World War II Kendra Smith-Howard
- 6. When meals became weapons: American food in World War II Kellen Backer
- 7. From field to foxhole: cigarettes and soldiers in World War II Joel R. Bius
- Part IV. New Landscapes: Cities and Coasts: 8. A watery grave?: World War II and the environment on the American Gulf Coast Christopher M. Rein
- 9. World War II and the urban environment: redirecting American politics in Los Angeles and beyond Sarah S. Elkind
- Part V. New Frontiers: Microbes, Molecules, and Atoms: 10. Battling insects and infection: American chemical and pharmaceutical expansion during World War II Martha N. Gardner
- 11. Shattered worlds: place, environment, and militarized landscapes at the dawn of atomic America Ryan H. Edgington
- Part VI. Conservation: 12. Total war and the total environment: World War II and the shift from conservation to environmentalism Thomas Robertson
- Index.
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