Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment 1880-1980

History of the Urban Environment

by Martin V. Melosi

This revised edition of a seminal work in the field of urban environmental history traces the development of waste management and related technologies from the Progressive Era to the present.

Genres: Urban, History, Politics, Nonfiction, Historical

Paperback

First published December 12, 1981

About the author

Martin Victor Melosi is Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor and the director of the Center for Public History at the University of Houston in Houston, Texas.

Reviews

[Octavia Cade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Believe it or not this was actually fascinating, which was not what I expected from a history of trash removal. The title, I do admit, is something of a misnomer - it's particularly about garbage in American cities for one, rather than cities in general, and although the book purports to cover the period from 1880-1980, the vast, vast majority of it analyses the period of 1880-1920. The rest of the decades get a bare look-in. Even so, fascinating. And well-written. I have been on a run lately of horrible academic writing, which causes me to glaze over in the space of mere paragraphs, but there's actually life to this prose, and the subject is all the more interesting for it.

Interesting, too, is the split focus. I've shelved the book as politics, because essentially that's what it is: how city governments manage garbage, and the multiple constituents they have to juggle to do so, primarily because this is a topic that can be approached from multiple angles. Clearly there is the issue of public health, but there's also engineering problems (how should garbage be disposed of?), economic problems (does the city pay for garbage collection and disposal, or does it contract out?), the need to encourage public engagement with keeping their cities clean, starting in the school system and keeping the adults educated on the subject as well. The size of the cities affects decision making, as does their location. The solutions tried are not always successful. Sometimes they appear successful and later turn out to be disasters, as the early reliance on incineration took place in a time when air pollution was not fully understood, for example. There is, in some times and places, a touching if naive reliance on the free market. All in all, though, it's a readable and comprehensive study, that got me thinking about a topic I've barely ever given two seconds of consideration to. I'm glad I read it.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solidly written, often entertaining, always informative, this history of waste management in the cities is a must-read for environmental historians, urban historians, or for people with a taste for trashy literature! I read it in one sitting.

[Grey Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book to write a national register nomination. It is hard to believe that people spend their academic lives writing about garbage, however, it would be better if more people knew about the history of waste management crisis in the United States. This book is a great start for anyone interested in that history.