Date: Fri, 05 Apr 1996 12:22:59 -0600
From: Jan Hardt <jhardt@aix1.ucok.edu>
Sender: Political Science Research and Teaching List
Subject: Environmental Politics texts

I am not sure if this request has already been posted, but I will be teaching an environmental politics class next Fall and I am interested in possible textbook suggestions. I am reviewing Rosenbaum's Environmental Politics (CQ Press), Kraft's Environmental Policy and Politics (Harper Collins), Smith's Environmental Policy Paradox by Prentice Hall, and Wells' Environmental Policy. Has anyone out there had any experience with any of these texts? Is there any that you would recommend over the other (and why!)? Are there any others out there that I have overlooked, but should not miss? My class will be taught at the junior-senior level, but I am also teaching this to graduate students. As a result, I would also be interested in any graduate level books as well.

Also, I am looking at the National Issues Forum series on environmental issues, Has anyone had any experiences (positive or negative) with this series?

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Dr. Jan Hardt, Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
University of Central Oklahoma
Edmond, OK 73034
E-mail: jhardt@aix1.ucok.edu

Date: Mon, 8 Apr 1996 15:32:30 -0500
Subject: Re: Environmental Politics texts
From: Charlotte Zoe Walker <walkercz@oneonta.edu>

To Jan Hardt--You might want to get hold of "Voices in the Wilderness: American Nature Writing and Environmental Politics," which is just coming out with University Press of New England, $15.95 for the paperback edition. (UPof NE website is http://www.dartmouth.edu/acad-inst/upne/)

(Daniel Payne will also be presenting a paper at the Multicultural Perspectives on Environmental Writing Conference at SUNY Oneonta June 22-24.)

Best of luck with your search. I hope you will publish the results on the list.

Charlotte

Date: Tue, 9 Apr 1996 13:06:38 -0500
Subject: Re: Environmental Politics texts
From: hirt <forrest@wsunix.wsu.edu>

I have used Rosenbaum's ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND POLICY (2nd ed.) for a course in environmental policy. It works very well. The book is quite readable and accessible to upper division undergraduates. It provides just the right mix of history and contemporary developments, and the right balance of overview and detail--a difficult finesse. It is strong on air, water, and toxics; weak on public lands. So if you are big on public lands policy you will be disappointed. I haven't used or read the other books you mentioned so I can't compare them for you. I highly recommend you assign as a supplement a small monograph by Helen Ingram and F. Lee Brown titled WATER AND POVERTY IN THE SOUTHWEST. Both are environmental policy scholars. The book is a very clearly written and provocative case study of how water "flows uphill toward money...and away from the poor and powerless" in the Southwest (focusing on the Tohono O'Odham Indians in southern Arizona and some hispanic communities in northern New Mexico). It is a very excellent political and cultural analysis that is useful for stimulating discussion and deals with the "water supply" issue and environmental justice issues that Rosenbaum is weak on.

Paul Hirt
Department of History
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-4030
ph: 509-335-4883
fax: 509-335-4171
forrest@wsunix.wsu.edu

Date: Fri, 12 Apr 1996 08:34:35 -0500
Subject: Re: Environmental Politics texts
From: Jan Hardt <jhardt@aix1.ucok.edu>

Thank you so much to all of you who kindly wrote suggestions to me on texts that I could use in my new environmental politics class next semester. Below is a brief summary of the suggestions for those of you who are interested:

MAIN TEXTS -- most recommended were ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND POLICY (Rosenbaum by CQ Press) and Kraft and Vig's ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY IN THE 1990S, although the support for Rosenbaum's text was the most mixed with some suggesting that it was the "best all-around text", while others saying that it was better for students who already had some background. Positive recommendations also came in for Kraft's ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND POLITICS (CQ) (most rigorous and evenhandeded and complete) and several suggested that they might try Switzer's ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS (St. Martins) in the future.

SUPPLEMENTAL TEXTS -- by far, the most varied recommendations came in the area of supplemental texts. Here were some of the suggestions.

Lester Brown's STATE OF THE WORLD 1996
Marc Reisner's CADILLAC DESERT (recommended for those in the West) Rich's MORTGAGING THE EARTH (history of World Bank and the environment) Miller's THIRD WORLD IN GLOBAL ENV'L POLITICS (1994 -- slim supplementary text)
Proescholdt et al's TROUBLED WATERS -- THE FIGHT FOR THE BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE WILDERNESS (a timely case study monograph) Morrison's ECOLOGICAL DEMOCRACY 1995 (compares ecological democracies of Japan, Spain and Canada, as well as critiquing industrialization) Cohen and Kamieniecki's ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION THROUGH STRATEGIC PLANNING (rational policy strategies and how they impact environmental regulation)
Cahn's ENVIRONMENTAL DECEPTIONS (tensions between market economy and environmental quality)
HISTORY: BEAUTY, HEALTH, and PERMANENCE: ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS IN THE US 1955-1985 from Samuel Hays

Thank you again to all of you who made such timely suggestions! Good luck in your course planning!

Dr. Jan Hardt
Assistant Professor of Political Science University of Central Oklahoma
Edmond, OK 73034
E-mail: jhardt@aix1.ucok.edu

<< Back to H-Environment List page