Description
Book SynopsisCan capitalism ever truly be environmentally conscious? Green Capitalism? Business and the Environment in the Twentieth Century provides a historical analysis of the relationship between business interests and environmental initiatives over the past century.
Trade Review"Fresh and thought-provoking . . . [W]hat makes this volume stand out is its emphasis on creative deployment of business history techniques to get at new understandings of manmade ecological change. By paying close attention to firm structure and strategy-the stuff of old-school business history-these authors show how historical research into corporations might offer innovative solutions to the pressing global environmental problems we face today." *
Environmental History *
"[T]he ambiguity highlighted in
Green Capitalism is the type that enables readers to develop more sophisticated interpretations of-or at least approaches to-green capitalism interpretations and approaches that defy caricature and can't be adequately conveyed on a bumper sticker . . . One puts down this fine book convinced of the importance of the longstanding relationship between business and the environment, more aware of the complexities and contradictions involved in said relationship, and yes, more understanding of the increasing power of the concept of green capitalism today."" *
Technology and Culture *
"
Green Capitalism? is a very forward-looking volume in its focus on how the two 'isms'-capitalism and environmentalism-might find common cause. Taken together, these excellent essays tell a story regarding the challenges of 'green capitalism' that readers of both history and environmental policy will find useful." * Sean Adams, University of Florida *
"
Green Capitalism? is an in-depth, and carefully analyzed, contribution to the relatively unexplored intersection of business history and environmental history." * Joel Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University *
Table of ContentsPreface
—Roger Horowitz
PART I. THE BIG PICTURE
Chapter 1. The Ecology of Commerce: Environmental History and the Challenge of Building a Sustainable Economy
—Adam Rome 1
Chapter 2. Shades of Green: A Business-History Perspective on Eco-Capitalism
—Hartmut Berghoff
Chapter 3. The Role of Businesses in Constructing Systems of Environmental Governance
—Hugh S. Gorman
PART II. CONSERVATION BEFORE ENVIRONMENTALISM
Chapter 4. Business Leadership in the Movement to Regulate Industrial Air Pollution in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century America
—Christine Meisner Rosen
Chapter 5. "Constructive and Not Destructive Development": Permanent Uses of Resources in the American South
—William D. Bryan
Chapter 6. Utilities as Conservationists? The Paradox of Electrification During the Progressive Era in North America
—Julie Cohn
PART III. FAILURES AND DILEMMAS
Chapter 7. Plastic Six-Pack Rings: The Business and Politics of an Environmental Problem
—David Kinkela
Chapter 8. The Rise and Fall of an Ecostar: Green Technology Innovation and Marketing as Regulatory Obstruction
—Leif Fredrickson
PART IV. GOING GREEN
Chapter 9. Dilemmas of Going Green: Environmental Strategies in the Swedish Mining Company Boliden, 1960-2000
—Ann-Kristin Bergquist
Chapter 10. Private Companies and the Recycling of Household Waste in West Germany, 1965-1990
—Roman Köster
Chapter 11. Kill-a-Watt: The Greening of Consolidated Edison in the 1970s
—Joseph A. Pratt
Chapter 12. Entrepreneurship, Policy, and the Geography of Wind Energy
—Geoffrey Jones
Chapter 13. Driving Change: The Winding Road to Greener Automobiles
—Brian C. Black
Notes
Contributors
Acknowledgments
