Description: Garbage, wastewater, hazardous waste: these are the lenses through which Melosi views nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. In broad overviews and specific case studies, Melosi treats the relationship between industrial expansion and urban growth from an ecological perspective.
Review Quotes: An intellectual journey with one of the giants of urban environmental history. . . . I will assign material from this book for my courses in urban and environmental geography and I would recommend others to do the same for similar courses. Having within an arm's reach a collection of thoughts from a leader and visionary in urban environmental history is the book's greatest value.-- "The Pennsylvania Geographer"