Citizen Environmentalists (Civil Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives) - Tapa blanda

"Citizen Environmentalists ties environmental activism in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to the mid-twentieth-century 'rights revolution' and earlier urban sanitation reform. . . . By narrowing his attention to a local case study, Longhurst reveals and illuminates aspects of environmentalism that other historians have neglected or completely missed in national-oriented, top-down investigations."--Journal of American History "Longhurst [makes an] important contribution to the literature of environmentalism. Scholars of environmental politics will learn much from this work."--Environmental History "Longhurst cogently argues that the modern environmental movement's significance lies less in its interest in the environment than in the 'fundamental change in the relationship between citizens and their government.' . . . This book is effectively conceptualized, organized, researched, and written. Accessible to general audiences, it is especially valuable for historians, political scientists, sociologists, and those in environmental studies. Recommended."--Choice "In Citizen Environmentalists, James Longhurst demonstrates that historical explanations of the modern environmental movement must take local context and political power into account. . . . By stressing local rather than national events and by integrating a political-science perspective with urban social history, Longhurst provides new insights into the sources and development of environmental activism."--The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Using a case study of environmental debates about air pollution in Pittsburgh during the late 1960s and early 1970s, James Longhurst examines larger trends in citizen activism outside party politics, linking those trends with the rights revolution of the late twentieth century. He draws upon journalistic accounts, archival documents, legal records, and interviews to explore the actions and arguments of GASP (Group Against Smog and Pollution). This group of environmental activists gained access to political power through claims to citizenship and scientific expertise, supported by the organizational skills, social capital, and maternal rhetoric of middle-class women. Once they gained entry to a newly confrontational policy process, the group engaged in furious public debates over implementation, enforcement, and employment, all amid the decline of Pittsburgh's industrial economy. The grassroots actions of GASP, and many other groups like it across the nation, show that new developments in policy-making, concepts of citizenship, and the long-standing tradition of middle-class women's civic activism did more to drive the creation of the modern environmental movement than did changes in environmental philosophy.