{"product_id":"pesticides-a-love-story-americas-enduring-embrace-of-dangerous-chemicals-paperback-softback-9780700626496","title":"Pesticides, a Love Story; America's Enduring Embrace of Dangerous Chemicals (Paperback \/ softback) 9780700626496","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003ePesticides, a Love Story\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eAmerica's Enduring Embrace of Dangerous Chemicals\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eMichelle Mart (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9780700626496\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 26 January 2018\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e344 pages\u003cbr\u003e22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.525 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eWhy did pesticide use soar despite warnings of costs?  Michelle Mart suggests that the answer lies in the stories Americans have told themselves about progress, modernity, and better living through chemistry.  Did love for these ideals blind Americans to flaws in the objects of their affection?  Read this book to find out.\"\" - Edmund Russell, author of \u003ci\u003eWar and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\"\u003ci\u003ePesticides, a Love Story\u003c\/i\u003e offers a rich narrative describing how chemical pesticides became so ubiquitous in American culture and the global environment. Astute and dogged research make for a conceptually strong synthesis, which reveals the roots of the American love affair with chemical pesticides, while chronicling how this affection grew over time.\"\" - David Kinkela, author of \u003ci\u003eDDT and the American Century: Global Health, Environmental Politics, and the Pesticide That Changed the World\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e“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 \u003ci\u003ewouldn’t\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAmerica'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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough the publication of Rachel Carson’s \u003ci\u003eSilent Spring\u003c\/i\u003e and the rise of environmentalism might have marked a turning point in Americans’ faith in pesticides, statistics tell a different story. \u003ci\u003ePesticides, a Love Story\u003c\/i\u003e recounts the campaign against DDT that famously ensued; but the book also shows where our notions of \u003ci\u003eSilent Spring’s\u003c\/i\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003ePesticides, a Love Story\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIntroduction\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e1. Falling in Love: The Golden Age of Synthetic Pesticides\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e2. Trouble in Paradise: The USDA and the Rise of Critical Voices\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e3. Breakup? The Cultural Impact of Rachel Carson’\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eSilent Spring\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e4. Foreign Affairs: How Pesticides Could Help Americans Feed the World and Win a War\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e5. The Twenty-Year Itch: Activists, Experts, and the Regulatory Era\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e6. Love Is Blind: Chemical Disasters at Home and Abroad\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e7. Recommitment: Endocrine Disruptors, GMOs, and Organic Food\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eConclusion\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAcknowledgment\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNotes\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBibliography\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIndex\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University Press of Kansas","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52574220878104,"sku":"9780700626496","price":27.25,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/pesticides-a-love-story-americas-enduring-embrace-of-dangerous-chemicals-paperback-softback-9780700626496","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}