The fire ant wars : nature, science, and public policy in twentieth-century America / Joshua Blu Buhs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buhs, Joshua Blu.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fire ants--Control--Southern States--History--20th century.

Fire ants.

Fire ants--Control--Environmental aspects--Southern States--History--20th century.

Insecticides--Environmental aspects--Southern States--History--20th century.

Insecticides.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (227 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Sometime in the first half of the twentieth century, a coterie of fire ants came ashore from South American ships docked in Mobile, Alabama. Fanning out across the region, the fire ants invaded the South, damaging crops, harassing game animals, and hindering harvesting methods. Responding to a collective call from southerners to eliminate these invasive pests, the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a campaign that not only failed to eradicate the fire ants but left a wake of dead wildlife, sickened cattle, and public protest. With political intrigue, environmental tragedy, and such figures as Rachel Carson and E. O. Wilson, The Fire Ant Wars is a grippingly perceptive tale of changing social attitudes and scientific practices. Tracing the political and scientific eradication campaigns, Joshua Buhs's bracing study uses the saga as a means to consider twentieth-century American concepts of nature and environmental stewardship. In telling the story, Buhs explores how human concepts of nature evolve and how these ideas affect the natural and social worlds. Spotlighting a particular issue to discuss larger questions of science, public perceptions, and public policy-from pre-environmental awareness to the activist years of the early environmental movement-The Fire Ant Wars will appeal to historians of science, environmentalists, and biologists alike.

Contents:

From South America to the American South, 1900-1950

Grins a prohibitive fracture, 1945-1957

Fire ants, from savage to invincible, 1957-1972

The fire ant wars, 1958-1983

The practice of nature, 1978-2000.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-208) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

ISBN:

9786612901799

9781282901797

1282901796

9780226079844

0226079848

OCLC:

688242182