Mining America: The Industry and the Environment, 1800-1980

by Duane A. Smith

Overview

Mining America is a vivid account of the damage wrought by almost two centuries of mining, but its main focus is on the conflicting attitudes behind the destruction and on society's responses. Veteran author and historian Duane Smith asserts that the marriage of mining and environmental issues was bound to touch America's sensitive pocketbook nerve - but the question now is, are all groups willing to pay the price?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870813061
Publisher:	University Press of Colorado
Publication date:	01/15/1994
Series:	Development of Western Resources Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	228
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Duane A. Smith is a professor of history at Fort Lewis College in Durango, and is the author or coauthor of more than fifty books on Colorado and the West. He also serves as chair of the Durango Parks and Forestry Board and on the Anima School House Museum Board.

Editorial Reviews

"...a well-documented survey...of the destructive impact of American mining practice upon the environment, and of the increasing public and political reaction to the devastation that mining produces. In a time when there is more heat than light generated upon the subject, it is a pleasure to note that the author has remained fair and dispassionate."
—Western Historical Quarterly

"This book presents, in rich detail, the first balanced portrait of the clash between the world of the profit-oriented, individualistic mining man and the cosmos of the environmental worshipper... It is an important book, a powerful book, a book of optimism and sanity... coming from one of our most able historians of the American West."
—Gene Gressley, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

From the Publisher

thor remarks that ``this is not an environmental history,'' but this volume certainly approximates one as it traces the attitudes of the mining industry toward the physical environment. This well-documented work relies mainly upon the perceptions of industry spokespersons and outside observers to flesh out the effects of various forms of mining in diverse geographical areas. Basically most mining operations ignored their environmental impact until social and political pressure was brought to bear on the industry. However, the complex reasons this occurred make fascinating reading. A work of competent scholarship, of value primarily to those working in or monitoring the mining industry. Gene R. Laczniak, Coll. of Business Administration, Marquette Univ., Milwaukee

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