War and Nature
Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring

This 2001 book shows the intersection of chemical warfare and pest control in the twentieth century.

Edmund Russell (Author)

9780521790031, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 February 2001

336 pages, 15 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.8 cm, 0.595 kg

'… the book breaks new ground in its connection of two traditionally disparate fields of inquiry, environmental and military history. It should be required reading in college courses in both security studies and environmental science.' History

War and Nature combines discussion of technology, nature, and warfare to explain the impact of war on nature and vice versa. While cultural and scholarly traditions have led us to think of war and control of nature as separate, this 2001 book uses the history of chemical warfare and pest control as a case study to show that war and control of nature coevolved. Ideologically, institutionally, and technologically, the paths of chemical warfare and pest control intersected repeatedly in the twentieth century. These intersections help us understand the development of total war and the rise of the modern environmental movement.

1. Introduction
2. The long reach of war (1914–17)
3. Joining the chemists' war (1917–18)
4. Chemical warfare in peace (1918–37)
5. Minutemen in peace (1918–37)
6. Total war (1936–43)
7. Annihilation (1943–5)
8. Planning for peace and war (1944–5)
9. War comes home (1945–50)
10. Arms races in the Cold War (1950–8)
11. Backfires (1958–63)
12. Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Educational: Biology [YQSB], Educational: Sciences, general science [YQS], Environmental science, engineering & technology [TQ], Chemical & biological weapons [JWMC], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], History of the Americas [HBJK]