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The Resource Pesticides, a love story : America's enduring embrace of dangerous chemicals, Michelle Mart

Pesticides, a love story : America's enduring embrace of dangerous chemicals, Michelle Mart

Creator
Summary
  • "'Presto! No More Pests!' proclaimed a 1955 article introducing two new pesticides, 'miracle-workers for the housewife and back-yard farmer.' Easy to use, effective, and safe: who wouldn't love synthetic pesticides? Apparently most Americans did--and apparently still do. Why--in the face of dire warnings, rising expense, and declining effectiveness--do we cling to our chemicals? Michelle Mart wondered. Her book, a cultural history of pesticide use in postwar America, offers an answer. America's embrace of synthetic pesticides began when they burst on the scene during World War II and has held steady into the 21st century--for example, more than 90% of soybeans grown in the US in 2008 are Roundup Ready GMOs, dependent upon generous use of the herbicide glyphosate to control weeds. Mart investigates the attraction of pesticides, with their up-to-the-minute promise of modernity, sophisticated technology, and increased productivity--in short, their appeal to human dreams of controlling nature. She also considers how they reinforced Cold War assumptions of Western economic and material superiority. Though the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the rise of environmentalism might have marked a turning point in Americans' faith in pesticides, statistics tell a different story. Pesticides, a Love Story recounts the campaign against DDT that famously ensued; but the book also shows where our notions of Silent Spring's revolutionary impact falter--where, in spite of a ban on DDT, farm use of pesticides in the United States more than doubled in the thirty years after the book was published. As a cultural survey of popular and political attitudes toward pesticides, Pesticides, a Love Story tries to make sense of this seeming paradox. At heart, it is an exploration of the story we tell ourselves about the costs and benefits of pesticides--and how corporations, government officials, ordinary citizens, and the press shape that story to reflect our ideals, interests, and emotions"--
  • "A provocative cultural history of pesticides and their controversial use and depiction in the United States. Mart contends that--despite the sharp concerns raised by environmentalists and others since the appearance of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring--Americans have not only never resolved the inherent tension between costs and benefits presented by these chemicals, but have actually grown ever more attached to them with the passage of time"--
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
337 pages
Contents
  • Falling in love: the golden age of synthetic pesticides
  • Trouble in paradise: the USDA and the rise of critical voices
  • Breakup?: The cultural impact of Rachel Carson's Silent spring
  • Foreign affairs: how pesticides could help Americans feed the world and win a war
  • The twenty-year itch: activists, experts, and the regulatory era
  • Love is blind: chemical disasters at home and abroad
  • Recommitment: endocrine disruptors, GMOs, and organic food
Isbn
9780700621286
Link
Instance
Label
Pesticides, a love story : America's enduring embrace of dangerous chemicals
Title
Pesticides, a love story
Title remainder
America's enduring embrace of dangerous chemicals
Statement of responsibility
Michelle Mart
Creator
Subject
Genre
Language
eng
Summary
  • "'Presto! No More Pests!' proclaimed a 1955 article introducing two new pesticides, 'miracle-workers for the housewife and back-yard farmer.' Easy to use, effective, and safe: who wouldn't love synthetic pesticides? Apparently most Americans did--and apparently still do. Why--in the face of dire warnings, rising expense, and declining effectiveness--do we cling to our chemicals? Michelle Mart wondered. Her book, a cultural history of pesticide use in postwar America, offers an answer. America's embrace of synthetic pesticides began when they burst on the scene during World War II and has held steady into the 21st century--for example, more than 90% of soybeans grown in the US in 2008 are Roundup Ready GMOs, dependent upon generous use of the herbicide glyphosate to control weeds. Mart investigates the attraction of pesticides, with their up-to-the-minute promise of modernity, sophisticated technology, and increased productivity--in short, their appeal to human dreams of controlling nature. She also considers how they reinforced Cold War assumptions of Western economic and material superiority. Though the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the rise of environmentalism might have marked a turning point in Americans' faith in pesticides, statistics tell a different story. Pesticides, a Love Story recounts the campaign against DDT that famously ensued; but the book also shows where our notions of Silent Spring's revolutionary impact falter--where, in spite of a ban on DDT, farm use of pesticides in the United States more than doubled in the thirty years after the book was published. As a cultural survey of popular and political attitudes toward pesticides, Pesticides, a Love Story tries to make sense of this seeming paradox. At heart, it is an exploration of the story we tell ourselves about the costs and benefits of pesticides--and how corporations, government officials, ordinary citizens, and the press shape that story to reflect our ideals, interests, and emotions"--
  • "A provocative cultural history of pesticides and their controversial use and depiction in the United States. Mart contends that--despite the sharp concerns raised by environmentalists and others since the appearance of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring--Americans have not only never resolved the inherent tension between costs and benefits presented by these chemicals, but have actually grown ever more attached to them with the passage of time"--
Member of
Assigning source
  • Provided by publisher
  • Provided by publisher
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1964-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Mart, Michelle
Dewey number
363.738/498
Index
index present
LC call number
SB950.2.A1
LC item number
M37 2015
Literary form
non fiction
NAL call number
SB950.2.A1
NAL item number
M37 2015
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
CultureAmerica
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Pesticides
  • Agricultural chemicals
  • Pesticides
  • Pesticides
  • Public opinion
  • United States
  • Nature
  • United States
  • HISTORY
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE
  • NATURE
  • Agricultural chemicals
  • Ecology
  • Nature
  • Pesticides
  • Pesticides
  • Pesticides
  • Public opinion
  • Social conditions
  • United States
  • Plaguicides
  • Productes químics agrícoles
  • Home
Label
Pesticides, a love story : America's enduring embrace of dangerous chemicals, Michelle Mart
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Falling in love: the golden age of synthetic pesticides
  • Trouble in paradise: the USDA and the rise of critical voices
  • Breakup?: The cultural impact of Rachel Carson's Silent spring
  • Foreign affairs: how pesticides could help Americans feed the world and win a war
  • The twenty-year itch: activists, experts, and the regulatory era
  • Love is blind: chemical disasters at home and abroad
  • Recommitment: endocrine disruptors, GMOs, and organic food
Control code
ocn912140481
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
337 pages
Isbn
9780700621286
Lccn
2015020380
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (Sirsi) i9780700621286
  • (OCoLC)912140481
Label
Pesticides, a love story : America's enduring embrace of dangerous chemicals, Michelle Mart
Link
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
  • Falling in love: the golden age of synthetic pesticides
  • Trouble in paradise: the USDA and the rise of critical voices
  • Breakup?: The cultural impact of Rachel Carson's Silent spring
  • Foreign affairs: how pesticides could help Americans feed the world and win a war
  • The twenty-year itch: activists, experts, and the regulatory era
  • Love is blind: chemical disasters at home and abroad
  • Recommitment: endocrine disruptors, GMOs, and organic food
Control code
ocn912140481
Dimensions
24 cm.
Extent
337 pages
Isbn
9780700621286
Lccn
2015020380
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
System control number
  • (Sirsi) i9780700621286
  • (OCoLC)912140481

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