A History of Environmentalism: Local Struggles, Global Histories

'Think globally, act locally' has become a call to environmentalist mobilization, proposing a closer connection between global concerns, local issues and individual responsibility. A History of Environmentalism explores this dialectic relationship, with ten contributors from a range of disciplines providing a history of environmentalism which frames global themes and narrates local stories.

Each of the chapters in this volume addresses specific struggles in the history of environmental movements, for example over national parks, species protection, forests, waste, contamination, nuclear energy and expropriation. A diverse range of environments and environmental actors are covered, including the communities in the Amazonian Forest, the antelope in Tibet, atomic power plants in Europe and oil and politics in the Niger Delta. The chapters demonstrate how these conflicts make visible the intricate connections between local and global, the body and the environment, and power and nature. A History of Environmentalism tells us much about transformations of cultural perceptions and ways of production and consuming, as well as ecological and social changes.

More than offering an exhaustive picture of the entire environmentalist movement, A History of Environmentalism highlights the importance of the experience of environmentalism within local communities. It offers a worldwide and polyphonic perspective, making it key reading for students and scholars of global and environmental history and political ecology.

This book brings together a collection of highly-respected contributors to provide a global history of environmentalism.

It makes the basic assumption that we can better understand the relationship that exists between man and nature through the close observation of conflicts that have taken place between the two. Using a range of case studies, A History of Environmentalism: Local Struggles, Global Histories weaves together an intricate fabric of environmental struggles throughout history that tells us much about transformations of cultural perceptions and ways of production and consuming, as well as ecological and social changes.

Although the narratives included in the book are strongly rooted in specific places, including Brazil, Italy, the USA and Australia, they suggest and reveal things about environmental issues in history on a world scale. This book will enable students to understand the history of environmentalism from a global and local perspective simultaneously.

Marco Armiero is Director of the Environmental Humanities Laboratory at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. He is the co-editor of Nature and History in Modern Italy (2010), author of A Rugged Nation: Mountains and the Making of Modern Italy (2011) and a senior editor of the journal, Capitalism Nature Socialism.

Lise Sedrez is Professor at the Instituto de História, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of the book series 'Latin American Landscapes' and the editor of Topoi: Revista de História.

1. Introduction Marco Armiero (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden) and Lise Sedrez (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
2. Preservation, parks, and place: Rethinking America's 'best idea' Jerritt Frank (University of Missouri, USA)
3. Biological diversity as a political force in Australia Libby Robin (Australian National University)
4. Oil, ethnic minority groups and environmental struggles against multinational oil companies and the federal government in the Nigerian Niger Delta since the 1990s Phia Steyn (University of Stirling, UK)
5. Protecting the Tibetan Antelope: A historical narrative and missing stories
Mao Da (Beijing Normal University, China) and Mei Xueqin (Tsinghua University, China)
6. Blood on the ice: The Greenpeace Campaign against the harp seal slaughter Frank Zelko (University of Vermont, USA)
7. The struggle for justice in Bhopal: A new/old breed of transnational social movement Stephen Zavestoski (University of San Francisco, USA)
8. Rubber, trees and communities: Rubber tappers in the Brazilian Amazon in the late 20th century Lise Sedrez (Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
9. Garbage under the volcano. The waste crisis in Campania and the struggles for environmental justice Marco Armiero (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)
10. The great fear: European environmentalism in the atomic age Hein-Anton van der Heijden (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Index