Garbage In The Cities: Refuse Reform and the Environment

by Martin V. Melosi

Overview

As recently as the 1880s, most American cities had no effective means of collecting and removing the mountains of garbage, refuse, and manure-over a thousand tons a day in New York City alone-that clogged streets and overwhelmed the senses of residents. In his landmark study, Garbage in the Cities, Martin Melosi offered the first history of efforts begun in the Progressive Era to clean up this mess.Since it was first published, Garbage in the Cities has remained one of the best historical treatments of the subject. This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes two new chapters that expand the discussion of developments since World War I. It also offers a discussion of the reception of the first edition, and an examination of the ways solid waste management has become more federally regulated in the last quarter of the twentieth century.Melosi traces the rise of sanitation engineering, accurately describes the scope and changing nature of the refuse problem in U.S. cities, reveals the sometimes hidden connections between industrialization and pollution, and discusses the social agendas behind many early cleanliness programs. Absolutely essential reading for historians, policy analysts, and sociologists, Garbage in the Cities offers a vibrant and insightful analysis of this fascinating topic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822972686
Publisher:	University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date:	11/26/2004
Series:	Pittsburgh Hist Urban Environ
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Martin V. Melosi is Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor and founding director of the Center for Public History at the University of Houston. Melosi received the Distinguished Research Award and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH), and the Esther Farfel Award from the University of Houston. He has served as president of the ASEH, the National Council on Public History, the Public Works Historical Society, and the Urban History Association. Melosi has written or edited nineteen books, including the award-winning The Sanitary City, and most recently, Atomic Age America.

Table of Contents

<p. vii, no folio, p. viii, cont'd or blank> Contents List of Table and Figures 000 Preface 000 Acknowledgments 000 Introduction 000 1. Out of Sight, Out of Mind: The Refuse Problem in the Late Nineteenth Century 000 2. The "Apostle of Cleanliness" and the Origins of Refuse Management 000 3. Refuse as an Engineering Problem: Sanitary Engineers and Municipal Reform 000 4. Refuse as an Aesthetic Problem: Voluntary Citizens' Organizations and Sanitation 000 5. Street-Cleaning Practices in the Early Twentieth Century 000 6. Collection and Disposal Practices in the Early Twentieth Century 000 7. Solid Waste as Pollution in Twentieth-Century America 000 8. The Garbage Crisis in the Late Twentieth Century 000 Conclusion 000 Notes 000 Index 000

Editorial Reviews

"A seminal examination of a too often neglected by-product of the technical and economic revolutions of the twentieth century."
—Technology and Culture


“A groundbreaking description of how modern garbage collection and disposal were born out of a reaction to the filthy living conditions that were a byproduct of the Industrial Revolution . . .  also assesses the impact of federal and state solid waste and recycling laws.”
—Waste Age

"Tells us much about American consumption, treatment of natural resources, social organization, and public spirit."
—Journal of American History

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