The Rise and Fall of Imperial Chemical Industries: Synthetics, Sensism and the Environment (1st ed. 2023)

Synopsis

This book provides a history of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), a large Britain- based chemical firm which was a major industrial player in the twentieth century. Once a model for Britain’s industrial reach and dominance, ICI collapsed in the mid-2000s, with some still profitable elements sold off to other chemical firms. The book focuses on the firm’s origin site in the Northeast of England, around Middlesbrough, engaging the remnants of the company magazine, oral histories and social media posts, and material artifacts in the world, to relate a history of the social, environmental, cultural and imaginative and bodily impact of the presence (and then absence) of ICI. This unique work is open to coincidence and speculation, drawing on science fictional and urban myth narratives which emanate from the area. Through the lens of global narratives of industrial and philosophical innovation, it inquires into uncommon and diverse themes, such as the manufacture of Quorn, the place of photographic mediation of the factory, and industrial disease. Setting out from a context of heavy industry and material processing, the book seeks to stimulate poetic and creative thinking around the ways in which people’s lives were enmeshed with synthetic chemicals and the dreams that seemed to ooze and seep from them as by-products.

Copyright:

2023

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9783031374326

Related ISBNs:

9783031374319

Publisher:

Springer Nature Switzerland

Date of Addition:

10/05/23

Copyrighted By:

The Author

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Science, Business and Finance, Technology, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.