Book ID: CBB001422360

Greening the Red, White, and Blue: The Bomb, Big Business, and Consumer Resistance in Postwar America (2014)

unapi

Jundt, Thomas (Author)


Oxford University Press


Publication Date: 2014
Physical Details: xii + 306 pp.; notes; index
Language: English

In popular imagination, environmentalism is often linked to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the political activism of the 1960s and '70s that moved increasing numbers of Americans to insist on a better quality of life-open spaces, clean air and water, beautification campaigns. But these interpretations have obscured the significant origins of environmentalism as a moral and intellectual broadside against the growing power of corporate capitalism, both domestically and in the postwar liberal international order the United States was enacting abroad. In Greening the Red, White, and Blue, Thomas Jundt shows how many Americans came to view powerful corporations and a federal government bent on economic growth as threats to human health and the environment. Fallout from atomic testing, air and water pollution, the proliferation of pesticides and herbicides-all connected to the growing dominance of technology and corporate capitalism in American life-led a variety of constituencies to seek solutions in what came to be known as environmentalism. In addition to political and legal campaigns to effect change, an alternative form of civic participation emerged beginning in the late-1940s as growing numbers of citizens turned to what they deemed environmentally friendly consumption practices. The goal of this politically charged consumption was not only to protect themselves and their families from harm, but also to achieve social change at a time when many believed the government was placing the desires of business before the needs of its citizens. Politicians responded to the growing environmental concerns of middle class Americans, but, in the end, continual political compromises with corporate power meant weak laws and lax enforcement. Many citizens sought refuge in an alternative "green" marketplace-including organic foods, natural-fiber clothing, alternative energy, and everyday products designed to have minimal environmental impact. In doing so, they attempted to create a community for those who shared their concerns and frustrations, as well as their vision for a different American Way.

...More
Reviewed By
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001422360/

Similar Citations

Book Richard S. Newman; (2016)
Love Canal: A Toxic History from Colonial Times to the Present (/isis/citation/CBB272782783/)

Thesis Dunsby, Joshua William; (2001)
Clarifying Smog: Expert Knowledge, Health, and the Politics of Air Pollution (/isis/citation/CBB001562429/)

Book Allitt, Patrick; (2014)
A Climate of Crisis: America in the Age of Environmentalism (/isis/citation/CBB001422331/)

Thesis Eardley-Pryor, Roger; (2014)
The Global Environmental Moment: Sovereignty and American Science on Spaceship Earth, 1945--1974 (/isis/citation/CBB001567572/)

Book Eric T. Freyfogle; (2017)
A Good That Transcends: How US Culture Undermines Environmental Reform (/isis/citation/CBB554745324/)

Article Dörries, Matthias; (2011)
The Politics of Atmospheric Sciences: “Nuclear Winter” and Global Climate Change (/isis/citation/CBB001034581/)

Article Rubinson, Paul; (2011)
“Crucified on a Cross of Atoms”: Scientists, Politics, and the Test Ban Treaty (/isis/citation/CBB001231508/)

Book Cody Ferguson; (2015)
This Is Our Land: Grassroots Environmentalism in the Late Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB659080560/)

Book Longhurst, James Lewis; (2010)
Citizen Environmentalists (/isis/citation/CBB001034513/)

Thesis Thomson, Jennifer Christine; (2013)
From Wilderness to the Toxic Environment: Health in American Environmental Politics, 1945-Present (/isis/citation/CBB001567540/)

Book Toshihiro Higuchi; (2020)
Political Fallout: Nuclear Weapons Testing and the Making of a Global Environmental Crisis (/isis/citation/CBB212919708/)

Authors & Contributors
Higuchi, Toshihiro
Conohar Scott
Newman, Richard S.
Ferguson, Cody
Freyfogle, Eric T.
Thomson, Jennifer Christine
Concepts
Political activists and activism
Science and politics
Environmentalism
Nuclear weapons; atomic weapons
Environmental pollution
Pollution
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
Places
United States
Love Canal
Arizona (U.S.)
Tennessee (U.S.)
Japan
Pennsylvania (U.S.)
Institutions
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; Partial Test Ban Treaty; Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963)
Federation of American Scientists
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment