Packing Them In
An Archaeology of Environmental Racism in Chicago, 1865-1954
This important new book by Sylvia Washington adds a vital new dimension to our understanding of environmental history in the United States. Washington excavates and tells the stories of Chicago’s poor, working class, and ethnic minority neighborhoods―such as Back of the Yards and Bronzeville―that suffered disproportionately negative environmental impacts and consequent pollution related health problems.
Endorsements for Packing Them In/Reprint
“This pioneering analysis examines the foundations of environmental racism and how marginalized communities became dumping grounds for waste and toxic material, while also demonstrating how these communities have long engaged in activism, resistance, and advocacy for protection. Thoroughly researched and eloquently told, Packing Them In remains a relevant and essential contribution to environmental history and urban studies.”
–Lisa Mighetto, American Society for Environmental History
“Packing Them In is a classic historical and archeological study of environmental racism in the United States. Where so few studies have attempted to examine environmental racism in the workplace, Sylvia Washington makes her study personal. We come to feel the experiences of Chicago’s poor, working class people in neighborhoods like Back of the Yards and Bronzeville. Well done!” –Martin V. Melosi, Author of The Sanitary City
“A pathbreaking book. Sylvia Hood Washington uses Chicago as a case study of how human health inequalities in urban environments change over time. In showing the ways white identity shaped exposure to environmental pollutants in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she provides historical context to the environmental racism identified in the United States in the late twentieth century. Packing Them In is instructive for those seeking to understand the structural origins of the present struggle for environmental justice, and a model for undertaking studies of urban environmental history that address the struggle. This model remains as important today as it was when Packing Them In was first published.”
–Carl Zimring, Associate Professor Social Science & Cultural Studies
“Sylvia Hood Washington’s Packing Them In provides strong and often startling evidence of the depths and complexities of environmental racism in Chicago, and offers an innovative historical explanation for how this social ill developed in nineteenth and twentieth century America…Packing Them In is a path-breaking book and a welcome addition to the fields of environmental history and environmental justice studies.” -David Naguib Pellow, Dehlsen Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara and author of Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago
“Packing Them In is a path-breaking book that is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how the social, political, and economic dimensions of urban environmental issues evolve over time. Chicago is the setting of this book and Washington deftly uses the complexity of the city’s race relations, immigration patterns, natural geography, and industrial growth to show the reader how these forces intersect to tell a tale of deeply entrenched environmental racism and social inequality. Packing Them In makes a significant contribution to the environmental justice literature as it challenges the notion that racism and inequalities arise solely from black-white dynamics. By using history to understand the evolution of racial and spatial dynamics and by embedding the work in Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework of power and knowledge, Washington demonstrates the importance of expanding traditional environmental justice frameworks in the analysis of case studies such as these. By so doing, she sees community residents as more than victims; she recognizes their agency and use it as a compelling part of the narrative of this important book.” –Dorceta E. Taylor, James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor, University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment
Author of:
The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection (2015), Duke University Press.
Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility (2014), New York University Press.
The Environment and the People in American Cities, 1600s-1900s: Disorder, Inequality, and Social Change (2009), Duke University Press.
Echoes from the Poisoned Well
Global Memories of Environmental Injustice
This book is a historical examination of environmental justice struggles across the globe from the perspective of environmentally marginalized communities. It is unique in environmental justice historiography because it recounts these struggles by integrating the actual voices and memories of communities that have grappled with environmental inequalities.