Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: March 25, 2021 at 9:57:59 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: LeBlanc on Robertson and Tucker and Breyfogle > and Mansoor, 'Nature at War: American Environments and World War II' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Thomas Robertson, Richard P. Tucker, Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Peter > Mansoor, eds. Nature at War: American Environments and World War II. > Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2020. xxi + 375 pp. $32.99 > (paper), ISBN 978-1-108-41207-0; $99.99 (cloth), ISBN > 978-1-108-41976-5. > > Reviewed by Christina LeBlanc (Tulane University) > Published on H-War (March, 2021) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > While much has been written about the military, political, economic, > social, and cultural ramifications of World War II, the environmental > ramifications of "the largest and most destructive conflict in human > history" remain understudied (p. xv). _Nature at War: American > Environments and World War II _is the first comprehensive examination > of US involvement in World War II from an environmental perspective. > Edited by Thomas Robertson, Richard P. Tucker, Nicholas B. Breyfogle, > and Peter Mansoor, this collection illustrates how the war resulted > in vast changes to US environments. This volume emphasizes how the > need for supplies, including weaponry, food, and cigarettes, > militarized landscapes far removed from the battlefield in Europe and > the Pacific, and in so doing marked American landscapes for decades > to come. > > The chapters in this anthology explore twelve dimensions of the > "wartime environmental experience of the United States" (p. 14). The > book is organized into six parts, including the importance of > transportation networks and military bases, the procurement of metal > and oil, the expansion of industrialized food industries, the > advances in chemical and atomic sciences, and the way total war > reshaped the thinking of conservationists. The bulk of environmental > history written about World War II focuses on atomic power and the > development of the bomb; however, this volume advocates for a more > comprehensive understanding of how the war years fundamentally > reshaped the natural landscapes of the continental United States from > its cities, to its rail and road systems, to its foodways, to its > tobacco farms and coastal lowlands. > > Much of this anthology relies on reinterpreting existent World War II > scholarship from an environmental perspective. Within this excellent > volume, Kellen Backer's chapter on the military's shift toward > processed foods to "liberate food from typical environmental > restraints" and Sarah S. Elkind's chapter on oil drilling, land use, > and community organizing around smog prevention stand out (p. 177). > In addition, Robertson's final chapter on the shifting perceptions of > nature and environmentalism during and directly after the war > reintegrates World War II into a rich historiography of US > intellectual history and twentieth-century environmental movements. > > A major strength of this collection is its emphasis on the long-term > ramifications of wartime decisions regarding US production and > geography. Robertson and Tucker assert that national security and a > technology-driven economy largely drove the cultural shifts that > shaped the second half of the twentieth century. The primacy of > victory and the US goal of becoming the "arsenal of democracy," they > argue, allowed for a "reckless disregard for environmental > consequences" that complicated the postwar economic boom and created > a military material culture that lasted long after the war (p. 11). > > The editors might have improved this already thought-provoking > anthology by including essays on US colonial outposts or overseas > bases. Its tight focus on the continental United States obscures the > transnational impacts of war on nature. Scholars of US empire may > find something lacking here in regard to the relatively unquestioned > primacy of the continental states as the extent of the United States. > Discussion on US territories and their significance to the war effort > is an omission of this collection. Including analyses of Guam, Puerto > Rico, or the Pacific Islands would have added to the authors' > arguments, since the environmental ramifications of the war on these > territories have shaped their health outcomes and activist causes for > decades. > > _Nature at War _makes an important contribution to the already-rich > historiography of World War II on the home front and pushes > historians to rethink the ramifications of the war on US citizens' > relationship to the natural world. Environmental historians, > historians of US foreign relations, historians of twentieth-century > US society and culture, and military historians all will find > something of interest here. While the chapters in this book often > deal with well-known moments in history--the invasion at Normandy, > the Manhattan Project, or the growth of the mid-century Sun Belt--the > feat of this volume is reinterpreting these events from an > environmental lens, allowing old stories to tell us, as historians, > something new. > > Citation: Christina LeBlanc. Review of Robertson, Thomas; Tucker, > Richard P.; Breyfogle, Nicholas B.; Mansoor, Peter, eds., _Nature at > War: American Environments and World War II_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. > March, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56026 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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