Perils of Progress Environmental Disasters in the 20th Century

by Jenks, Andrew L

• ISBN13: 9780136038023
• ISBN10: 0136038026
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-03-19
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

The increasing pace and specialization of historical inquiry caused an ever-widening gap between professional research and general surveys of world history. The titles in the Connections series are designed to bridge that gap by placing the latest research, on selected topics of global significance into an easily accessible context for students. Brief and tightly focused, each Connections title examines cross-cultural themes by employing a combination, of narrative, documents, and analysis to show students connections in world history.

Author Biography

Dr. Andrew Jenks, an associate professor of history at California State University Long Beach, is a specialist in Russian history, history of technology, and environmental history. In addition to publishing numerous articles in scholarly publications on a range of topics, he has authored a book on Russian national identity,  Russia in a Box: Art and Identity in an Age of Revolution, Northern Illinois University Press, and is currently finishing a biography of the world's first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, The Cosmonaut Who Couldn't Stop Smiling: Yuri Gagarin and the Many Faces of Modern Russia, Northern Illinois University Press. Before receiving his Ph.D. in Russian history and history of technology from Stanford University in 2002, Jenks worked in the 1990s as a journalist and editor in Washington, D.C., where he covered NASA, EPA, secret military high-tech programs, and the emerging Internet business. He studied Russian language at the Pushkin Russian Language Institute in Moscow in the late 1980s, where he also worked as a translator in the Moscow CNN office. He also worked for six months on Soviet fishing boats in the Bering Sea.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vi
Series Editor's Preface	p. viii
About the Author	p. xiv
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Modernity's Pollution Problems	p. 2
Methodology	p. 4
The Four Horsemen of the Toxic Apocalypse	p. 5
Common Themes to Consider	p. 7
The Blame Game	p. 8
Conspiracy Theory and Historical Amnesia	p. 10
The Moral Dimension	p. 11
The Minamata Disaster and the True Costs of Japanese Modernization	p. 13
Chisso Corporation	p. 14
Disturbing Signs	p. 16
Political and Cultural Obstacles	p. 17
Lifting the Veil of Silence	p. 18
The Battle Rejoined	p. 20
Atomic Bombs, Godzilla, and the Culture of Victimization	p. 21
Seeking Justice Outside the Courts	p. 24
The Uniqueness of the Japanese Case	p. 25
Minamata as a Global Event	p. 27
The Appeal to Emotion	p. 28
A New Way to Calculate Progress	p. 29
A Lingering Toxicity	p. 31
Sources	p. 33
Struggling with the Disease	p. 33
Those Who Remain Are Like Embers	p. 35
The Confrontation at Goi	p. 37
"Let a Feather Drop Onto Their Heads....": The Chisso Corporation Defends Itself	p. 39
Love Canal and the Law of Unintended Consequences	p. 43
The Unspoken Bargain	p. 45
The Bargain Re-evaluated	p. 48
Reports of Mysterious Substances	p. 49
Science in the Service of the State	p. 53
Long-Term Social and Political Effects	p. 57
"Revitalizing" the Community	p. 60
Sources	p. 63
A Child's Death	p. 63
A Curious Tax Audit	p. 65
Passing the Buck	p. 66
And Who Was Responsible?	p. 68
The Bhopal Gas Tragedy: A Perfect Storm of Injustice	p. 70
India, Union Carbide, and the Green Revolution	p. 72
Complacency	p. 76
Corporate and Popular Responses	p. 78
Finger Pointing	p. 82
The Legal Drama	p. 83
A Silver Lining?	p. 87
The Disaster Industry	p. 88
Sources	p. 91
Profit at All Costs?	p. 91
Safety First?	p. 94
A Medical Professional's Perspective	p. 96
A Grassroots Perspective	p. 102
The Controversy Continues	p. 104
The Techno-Politics of Disaster: Chernobyl and the Collapse of the Soviet Union	p. 106
Anatomy of an Accident	p. 108
Political Fallout and Historical Context	p. 111
Evacuation	p. 115
The Blame Game	p. 117
Toward an Explanation	p. 119
Casualties and Health Consequences	p. 121
Chernobyl after Chernobyl	p. 126
Sources	p. 127
A Misfortune Has Befallen Us	p. 127
The Western Nuclear-Power Industry Reacts	p. 129
The Myth of Chernobyl?	p. 131
Victims and Heroes: Voices from Chernobyl	p. 133
Epilogue: Making Connections	p. 136
An Exception to the Rule	p. 138
Language and Metaphor	p. 139
Technological Transfers and the Web of Connections	p. 140
The Cost-Benefit Calculus of Progress	p. 141
Disasters as Cultural Mirrors	p. 143
Disaster Imaginations	p. 145
Bibliography	p. 148
Index	p. 156
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