Prisons for Sale, Histories Not Included
Environmentalists played a disturbing role in the Adirondacks’ prison-building boom. As the state now shutters many of those facilities, we’re at risk of forgetting that.
Tagged: Labor
How Indigenous Hawaiians Helped Build the Pacific Northwest Economy
When fur, lumber, and salmon ruled the Northwest frontier, Hawaiian labor was at the heart of it all. An environmental historian retells the story of 19th-century Oregon and British Columbia from a trans-Pacific perspective.
A Firsthand Account of Finding Nature on a U.S. Military Base
We need to expand our ideas of nature to include the battlefield. A historian explains why we should view soldiers’ daily lives as part of the natural world.
How the Other Half Loved Nature
A recent book shows Chicago’s turn-of-the-century black and immigrant laborers embraced the great outdoors. Did they have any other choice?
The Immigrants Who Supplied the Smithsonian’s Fish Collection
The Smithsonian’s fish collection preserves not just specimens but the labor and knowledge of immigrant fishermen on the California coast.
Ecological Homes: Making Women, Men, and Nature
At the New Alchemy Institute’s bioshelters, green technologies promised social revolution. But women still found themselves stuck with the dishes.
Bittersweet Catch: Korea’s Diving Women and the Pitfalls of Cultural Preservation
While attending a school set up to train the next generation of haenyeo divers, one woman grapples with the historical and ongoing complexities of maintaining the traditional practice.
What Eight Waves of Migration Can Tell Us About Human-Environment Relationships
Immigration is often driven by environmental change, and immigrants themselves often change the landscapes they come to inhabit when they arrive. Examining the geographic history of past immigrants and refugees can inform present debates.
Can Socialism Save the Planet?
Twentieth-century socialist countries get a worse environmental rap than they deserve, and some social theorists are attempting to reinvigorate Marx for the Anthropocene. Here’s where they go wrong.
Excavating the Private Sphere
A photo essay of mid-century domestic relics open a window on a woman’s hard, heroic, uncelebrated life.
