By examining environmental change through the lens of conflicting
social agendas, Andrew Hurley uncovers the historical roots of
environmental inequality in contemporary urban America. Hurley's
study focuses on the steel mill community of Gary, Indiana, a city
that was sacrificed, like a thousand other American places, to
industrial priorities in the decades following World War II.
Although this period witnessed the emergence of a powerful
environmental crusade and a resilient quest for equality and social
justice among blue-collar workers and African Americans, such
efforts often conflicted with the needs of industry. To secure
their own interests, manufacturers and affluent white suburbanites
exploited divisions of race and class, and the poor frequently
found themselves trapped in deteriorating neighborhoods and exposed
to dangerous levels of industrial pollution. In telling the story
of Gary, Hurley reveals liberal capitalism's difficulties in
reconciling concerns about social justice and quality of life with
the imperatives of economic growth. He also shows that the power to
mold the urban landscape was intertwined with the ability to govern
social relations.