Not Just Green, Not Just White: Race, Justice, and Environmental History

By: Mary E. Mendoza and Traci Brynne Voyles

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Synopsis: Not Just Green, Not Just White brings together a group of diverse contributors to explore the rich intersections between race and environment. Together these contributors demonstrate that the field of environmental history, with its core questions and critical engagement with the nonhuman world, provides a fertile context for understanding racism and ongoing colonialism as power structures in the United States. Earlier historiography has defined environmental history as the study of the changing relationships between humans and the environment—or nature. This volume aims to redefine the field, arguing that neither humans nor environment is a monolithic actor in any given story. Both humans and the environment are diverse, and often the environment causes conflict between and among peoples, leaving unequal access and power in its wake. Just as important, these histories often reveal how, despite unequal power, those who carry less privilege still persist. Together these essays demonstrate the promise of the field of environmental history and reveal how, when practitioners in the field decide to move away from &“green&” and &“white&” topics, they will be able to explain much more about our collective past than anyone ever imagined.