Welcome to the American Society for Environmental History
featured scholarship
The current recipient of ASEH’s George Perkins Marsh
Prize for the best book in environmental history is Hybrid Nature: Sewage
Treatment and the Contradictions of the Industrial Ecosystem by Daniel
Schneider (MIT Press). Biological
sewage treatment, like electricity, power generation, telephones, and mass
transit, has been a key technology and a major part of the urban infrastructure
since the late 19th century. But sewage treatment plants are not
only a ubiquitous component of the modern city, they are also ecosystems--a
hybrid variety that incorporates elements of both nature and industry and
embodies multiple contradictions. In Hybrid Nature, Daniel Schneider
offers an environmental history of the biological sewage treatment plant in the
US and England, viewing it as an early and influential example of an industrial
ecosystem.
welcome
The American Society for Environmental History increases understanding of the important role played by the environment throughout human history, from the earliest period to the crucial issues of our own time. Founded in 1977, the ASEH is a non-profit scholarly organization that promotes research and teaching as well as public outreach. Our membership is international and interdisciplinary - and those who join receive a subscription to our quarterly journal, Environmental History, published by Oxford University Press. We invite you to explore this website for info. on our mission as well as our journal, conferences and workshops, travel grants, fellowships, teaching resources, and more.
-Gregg Mitman, ASEH President
