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Book Review
| The Modern Demon: Pollution in Urban and Industrial European Societies. Edited by Christoph Bernhardt and Genviève Massard-Guilbaud. Clermont-Ferrand: Presses Universitaires Blaise-Pascal, 2002. 465 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, lists of contributors. $34.00.
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| The spirit of Joseph Conrad's "The Heart of Darkness" appears to be alive and well among some environmental historians. Pollution is the latest concept to be attributed to the "dark side" of modern man. "Far from being solely secondary consequences (Nebenfolge) of modernity," write Bernhardt and Massard-Guilbaud, "the concepts of pollution and political disorder are well at the heart of modern society, its dark side, its 'demon'" (p. 13). |
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This collection of essays challenges the conventional view that pollution is merely a by-product of industrial processes. Far from being a consequence of modernization, the editors consider pollution to be central to the origins of modern society itself. The editors cite as a major inspiration the work of Joel A. Tarr, who, in his work The Search for the Ultimate Sink: Urban Pollution in Historical Perspective, has defined pollution as "the product of the interaction among technology, scientific knowledge, human culture and values, and environment. Environmental policy and control technology are further elements." (University of Akron, 1996, p.7). |
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In light of recent work on global environmental history, it is perhaps a shame that none of the book's contributors followed Kurtz to the Congo. Instead, the authors provide a Eurocentric view of pollution and its causes. The book's main argument is supported by way of twenty-three European case studies and is the product of a conference held in Clermont-Ferrand in 2000. Each case study seeks to emphasize the cultural dimensions of pollution, paying particular attention to institutions, governments, social groups, industry, and the connections between them. |
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The first part of the book is entitled "Pollution: from invention as a concept to emergence as a political issue," and it lays out the volume's theoretical framework. Patrick Fournier highlights the religious origins of the term in France and explains the role of experts such as doctors and engineers, along with larger social and cultural changes, in bringing pollution into the political sphere. The disproportional role of experts is also examined in Lucie Paquy's study of pollution in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Grenoble. Franz-Josef Brüggemeier's study of the myth of deforestation in Germany (Waldsterben) demonstrates how deep-seated cultural fears can supercede scientific knowledge; scientists who claimed that German forests grew between 1950 and 1990 faced widespread public skepticism. Brüggemeier suggests that environmental history "may serve to correct exaggerated constructions" (p. 89). |
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The remaining articles address the themes of water and air pollution, the relationship between town and industry and the role of gender in social and environmental movements. Some articles, such as Sabine Barles's on the "purification" of Paris from the Old Regime to the Second World War, are scientifically oriented and use graphs and tables to make their argument. Others stress the role of competition, perception, and other cultural factors in analyzing responses to pollution among the population and government. Jan Oosthoek examines the politics of wastewater purification in Groningen, while Harold Platt argues that the "invisible" achievements of air pollution control in Manchester had undermined its efforts by the late nineteenth century. Finally, Jens Ivo Engels's article on gender and the anti-nuclear reactor movement in Wyhl, Germany, serves as a rebuke to those who would automatically equate environmental with feminist movements. He argues that the women who participated in the movement did not link their cause to a struggle against patriarchy. |
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The book's theoretical approach, its use of case studies, and emphasis on institutions make it of particular interest to students of European history, the history of technology, and urban environmental history. Unfortunately, the book's essays are published in English and French, and therefore some students will find it inaccessible. |
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The idea that modern society has a "demon" at its heart is hardly novel, and the significance one should draw from the book's title remains questionable. However, the work's attempt to reconfigure the relationship between pollution, industrialization, and society should inspire new and more profound research on the causes and meaning of pollution. |
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Jeanne Haffner is a Ph.D. student in the Department of History at the University of Virginia. She is working on her dissertation project, a history of social space in postwar France. |
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