Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction | A New History for a Young Century
Part I: Essentials
1. Potosí | Rich in Metals
2. Sugar | The New Organic
3. The Canal du Midi | The Great Mobilization
4. Sustainable Forestry | The State of the Woodlands
5. Shipbreaking in Chittagong | Leftovers
Part II: Appropriations
6. The Land Title | To Own a Place
7. Breadfruit | Food Choices
8. Guano | The Fertility Business
9. Whaling | Resources at Sea
10. United Fruit | The Great Corporate Banana
Part III: Irreversible
11. The Dodo | Species That Perish
12. The Boll Weevil | The Nemesis of Monoculture
13. The Little Grand Canyon | The Perils of Erosion
14. Cane Toads | Immigrants on the March
15. Saudi Arabia | The State of Resources
Part IV: Technology takes Command
16. London Smog | In the Age of Coal
17. The Water Closet | Producing Cleanliness
18. Chicago’s Slaughterhouses | Animals on the Line
19. Synthetic Nitrogen | Farming on Steroids
20. Air-Conditioning | Engineering the Climate
Part V: Ruptures
21. Cholera | The Nature of Disease
22. Baedeker | Guidance for Seekers
23. Gandhi’s Salt | To Change the World
24. The 1970 Tokyo Resolution | International Conventions
25. The 1976 Tangshan Earthquake | Somewhat Natural Disasters
Part VI: The Final Reserves
26. Kruger National Park | Reserved Nature
27. Eucalyptus | Supertrees
28. Hybrid Corn | Breeding Ambitions
29. Aswan Dam | Damming and Developing
30. The Rice-Eating Rubber Tree | Speaking of Dependence
Part VII: The Age of Catastrophe
31. Holodomor | The Politics of Hunger
32. The Pontine Marshes | Fighting for Space
33. The Chemurgy Movement | The Business of Biofuels
34. Autobahn | The Endsieg of Automobilism
35. The Pine Roots Campaign | The Totality of War
Part VIII: The Great Entrenchment
36. Battery Chicken | The Industrialized Animal
37. Lucky Dragon No. 5 | Atoms without Limits
38. DDT | Learning from a Book
39. Torrey Canyon | Coping with Technological Failure
40. Plastic Bags | Ephemeralia
Coda | The Pandemic
The Mess We’re In | An Inconclusive Conclusion
Appendix | Making Choices
Notes
Index