Nature And The Iron Curtain: Environmental Policy And Social Movements In Communist And Capitalist Countries, 1945–1990

In Nature and the Iron Curtain, the authors contrast communist and capitalist countries with respect to their environmental politics in the context of the Cold War. Its chapters draw from archives across Europe and the U.S. to present new perspectives on the origins and evolution of modern environmentalism on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The book explores similarities and differences among several nations with different economies and political systems, and highlights connections between environmental movements in Eastern and Western Europe. “At the edge of yet another apocalypse, in the midst of wars, political turbulence, and ecological crisis, Astrid Mignon Kirchhof and J.R. McNeill bring us back to another time of great anxiety for the future of the planet. Through a compelling exploration of the two sides of the Iron Curtain, with a unique richness of first-hand research, Kirchhof and McNeill show the divergent and convergent paths of environmentalism and its intertwinement with national stories and global trends. The result is a unique history book which offers original insights into the Cold War but, hopefully, it will also tell us something about our (possible) futures.”—Marco Armiero, Director of the Environmental Humanities Laboratory, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.