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  • DDT and the American Century: Global Health, Environmental Politics, and the Pesticide that Changed the World
  • J. Brooks Flippen
DDT and the American Century: Global Health, Environmental Politics, and the Pesticide that Changed the World. By David Kinkela (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 2011) 257 pp. $39.95

The chemical pesticide DDT is hardly new to environmental history. Born of the mid-twentieth century and used as an insecticide to fight malaria and to protect agriculture, DDT became infamous as one of the antagonists in Rachel Carson bestseller Silent Spring (New York, 1962), considered by many historians as the seminal event in popularizing ecology and launching the American environmental movement. Indeed, scholars such as Russell and Dunlap have explored the rise of DDT and its eventual fall, the chemical finally banned domestically in the United States in the early 1970s.1 Like the work of these earlier scholars, Kinkela's new book recognizes that the story of DDT combines economic, political, and social forces with science. Kinkela agrees that the tale, though significant historically, hardly lends itself to easy interpretation or conclusion. The value of his book—and its point of departure from earlier works—is that it places DDT in a broader context, adding more about DDT's international impact. In short, Kinkela injects some diplomatic history into the already complex story, noting DDT's importance, both practically and symbolically, for America's standing in the world. Although Kinkela is by no means a revisionist downplaying DDT's negative ecological ramifications, his more global perspective implies to a greater degree the positive impact of DDT, suggesting that properly controlled—and with the lessons of the past firmly in mind—DDT will have at least some value in the future. In fact, it has been re-introduced in Africa to control malaria.

DDT, KInkela argues, was an important part of America's Cold War efforts to promote prosperity and freedom. With an unbridled faith in technological innovation, America embraced the "Green Revolution" (61), which promoted science as key to improving crop yields in the [End Page 335] Third World and even eradicating malaria. This faith that through a process of destruction and renewal, American science and technology promised a more prosperous future came to symbolize the United States and its role in the international postwar community. It defined what author Henry Luce labeled the "American Century." The emergence of Carson and environmentalism, however, threw this dominant ethic into doubt. Although Carson did not dismiss the use of chemical pesticides per se, her criticism seemed to question American ideology and its standing in the Cold War. Her arguments simplified, Carson became a divisive figure as the momentum grew for the domestic ban. The ecological reality now dawning, the American-promoted Green Revolution had failed, and the American Century had ended.

Kinkela is at his best noting the complexity behind this apparent evolution. Readers, for example, will probably be surprised to find that America continued to sell DDT abroad even after the domestic ban, some questioning whether regulations for environmental impact statements applied internationally. That organizations both public and private reacted differently around the world is hardly surprising given the varying conditions. With widespread DDT use, mosquitoes eventually developed resistance and, in recent years, cases of malaria have rebounded, suggesting limits to DDT's value. In the end, Kinkela's story is detailed and well sourced while remaining a relatively accessible narrative. It is a welcome addition to the literature not only for scholars across many disciplines but also general readers.

J. Brooks Flippen
Southeastern Oklahoma State University

Footnotes

1. Edmund P. Russell, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (New York, 2001); Thomas Dunlap, DDT: Scientists, Citizens, and Public Policy (Princeton,1981).

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