Edmund Russell

Guide to U.S. environmental policy

Guide to U.S. Environmental Policy provides the analytical connections showing readers how issues and actions are translated into public policies and persistent institutions for resolving or managing environmental conflict in the U.S. The guide highlights a complex decision-making cycle that requires the cooperation of government, business, and an informed citizenry to achieve a comprehensive approach to environmental protection. The books topical, operational, and relational essays address development of U.S. environmental policies, the federal agencies and public and private organizations that frame and administer environmental policies, and the challenges of balancing conservation and preservation against economic development, the ongoing debates related to turning environmental concerns into environmental management, and the role of the U.S. in international organizations that facilitate global environmental governance. Key Features: *30

What should we remember : A global poll among environmental historians

lective environmental memory of the world, what would it be?” In the spring of 2013, scholars from around the world found themselves confronted with this pointed question, and many of them – 22 in all – sent a reply. The original idea was that, in a volume dedicated to the merger of memory studies and environmental history, such a poll would broaden our perspective beyond the individual articles. The result is a colorful mix. It includes animals and bombs, dust and climate, organic and mineral resources, the old conservation movement and the new post-1970 environmental movement. From a geographical per“ What Should We Remember? A Global Poll Among Environmental Historians

Book Review: The Moral Authority of Nature

caused by the parity exchange stipulated for the East German currency and the dealings of the Treuhandgesellschaft. The latter was originally intended to transform socialist enterprises into companies which would eventually stand up to market forces, but it was decided that it would be better, mostly in the interest of existing Western corporations, to sell off East German industry as quickly and cheaply as possible. Dale describes this policy as a combination of ‘legitimate malpractice . . . accompanied by law-breaking and corruption on a grand scale’ (320). Its repercussions will hamper the socioeconomic recovery of East Germany for years to come. In conclusion, Dale summarizes the importance of world systemic factors to developments in the USSR and the GDR. His highlighting of these issues and their relevance to state policy in the Eastern Bloc constitutes one of the book’s primary achievements. Yet, this emphasis also means that this otherwise superb analysis of East German economic history tends to ignore the actions of the East German people and changing public discourses. This drawback is highlighted by Dale’s use of sources: although brilliantly employed, he relies almost entirely upon secondary sources, taking into account only a very few primary sources from high-level central authorities. In this respect, therefore, this is a one-sided story. Nevertheless, it is a crucial side of East German history, and one which had been lacking until now.