Smoke and the Spoils by John Hultgren - ISBN: 9780262552370
Paperback
Class, climate, and coal: a fight for America’s future.

Smoke and the Spoils

Anti-Environmentalism and Class Struggle in the United States

$79.98

  • Paperback

    280 pages

  • Release Date

    24 June 2025

Check Delivery Options

Summary

The future of our environment lies in the hands of the working class, but what if the future of the working class also lies in environmental political struggles?

The unsettling realities of climate change, air and water pollution, and toxic contamination loom larger with every passing day, but the policies that will enable us to respond to these crises continue to be blocked by reactionary actors and ideologies. How do we explain the power and persistence of anti-environmentalism in t…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9780262552370
ISBN-10:026255237X
Author:John Hultgren
Publisher:MIT Press Ltd
Imprint:MIT Press
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:280
Release Date:24 June 2025
Weight:369g
Dimensions:229mm x 152mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

“John Hultgren traces the historical construction of the white US worker as the antithesis to environmentalism, reveals cracks emerging in this narrative, and provides an indispensable guide for working-class organization against these projects of ecological destruction—not least as the new Trump era unfolds.”
—Andreas Malm, Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography, Lund University; author of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and coauthor of White Skin, Black Fuel: On the Danger of Fossil Fascism

“Hultgren provides much needed clarity for understanding how American anti-environmentalism emerged and how it is sustained through appeals to the working classes and offers vital tools for confronting this phenomenon. A monumental achievement.”
—David N. Pellow, Dehlsen Professor of Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project, UC Santa Barbara

“Historically rich, theoretically sophisticated, and all too timely, The Smoke and the Spoils is a revelatory account of both environmental and labor politics that recasts the relationship between class, nature, and capitalism.”
—Alyssa Battistoni, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University; coauthor of A Planet to Win

About The Author

John Hultgren

John Hultgren is a Faculty Member in Environmental Politics at Bennington College in Vermont. He is the author of Border Walls Gone Green- Nature and Anti-immigrant Politics in America.

Returns

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.