Smoke and Mirrors

E. Melanie DuPuis is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of Nature's Perfect Food: How Milk Became America's Drink.

"[A] fascinating, provocative, pathbreaking book. . . . Air pollution can no longer be understood simply as an issue of economics, science, and engineering, but one that implicates fundamental values and controversies surrounding justice, fairness, and the construction of knowledge." - Gary Bryner,author of From Promises to Performance: Achieving Global Environmental Goals "Essential reading for social environmental historians, environmental scientists, cultural and social historians, and public policy specialists." - Bill Luckin,author of Pollution and Control "The well-told stories in its diverse chapters provide lessons for today as we continue to struggle to curb urban air pollution and its health effects." - Jonathan Samet,coeditor of Indoor Air Pollution: A Health Perspective "This collection of richly detailed and pioneering essays will be welcomed as a major contribution . . . providing a broad-ranging and multifaceted overview of the history of society's reaction to and struggle to protect itself from air-borne industrial toxins." - Christine Rosen,author of The Limits of Power "This excellent collection offers a complex and nuanced introduction to a field that intersects with many others, including studies of social stratification and social movements." - Graig Willse,City University of New York "Arguing the importance of the social dimensions of air pollution issues, this collection of 15 original essays addresses a wide range of topics ranging from the perception of the pollution in Victorian England to automotive pollution control in prewar Germany to pesticide drift in modern California. Several essays are provocative. well written, and richly detailed; others are vignettes." (Choice)

• IntroductionThe Emergence of Air Pollution as a ProblemPerceptions and E?ects of Late Victorian Air Pollution "The Invisible Evil": Noxious Vapor and Public Health in Manchester during the Age of Industry Public Perceptions of Smoke Pollution in Victorian Manchester Uplands Downwind: Acidity and Ecological Change in the Southeast Lancashire Moorlands The "Smoky City" between the Wars The Merits of the Precautionary Principle: Controlling Automobile Exhausts in Germany and the United States before Interpreting the London Fog Disaster Localizing Smog: Transgressions in the Therapeutic Landscape Air Pollution Policy TodayA Fine Balance: Automobile Pollution Control Strategies in California Who Owns the Air? Clean Air Act Implementation as a Negotiation of Common Property Rights Air Pollution in Spain: A "Peripheral" Nation Transforms Clearing the Air and Breathing Freely: The Health Politics of Air Pollution and Asthma Invisible People, Invisible Places: Connecting Air Pollution and Pesticide Drift in California Notes from the Field: Air Pollution Engineering as Cultural Experience The Social and Political Construction of Air Pollution: Air Pollution Policies for Mexico CityAfterword Contributors Index