Fat of the Land: Garbage of New York -- The Last Two Hundred Years [Paperback]

Benjamin Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2000

A city awash in garbage; rats skittering through heaps of rotting debris; disease spreading through choked waterways; citizens threading through piles of filth - urban nightmare or profiteer's dream come true? Benjamin Miller's panoramic view of New York's garbage takes us from the earliest antebellum collectors, to 19th- century barons trading in fertilizers and explosives, to the current feuding bureaucrats and environmentalists. Fat of the Land covers social and scientific theories of class and disease, in the process offering a richly textured history of urban development. The book reveals for the first time the plotting of power broker Robert Moses that gave birth to the controversial Fresh Kills landfill and examines the curious logic behind its untimely end. Fat of the Land brings to light an often hidden subject, assessing who gains and who loses in the endless battle over garbage.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Of all of New York's unnatural resources, garbage is perhaps the most lucrative and, historically, the most contested. This deeply researched, eclectic history of how New York has handled its increasingly mountainous accumulations of trash is social and political history at its best. As Miller's comprehensive view makes clear, the problem of urban garbage disposal has many tentacles. While social philosopher Jeremy Bentham viewed it as a moral problem, yellow fever and cholera outbreaks in the city later revealed that it was also a health problem. When new technology allowed grease to be easily extracted from refuse, however, it became an economic boon; as the metropolis began to expand, garbage also became a basic landfill material, producing millions for developers and city politicians. Miller, the former director of policy for the New York City Department of Sanitation, is equally at ease with the intricacies of Brooklyn ward politics, Frederick Law Olmsted's theories of urban planning and Edison's plan for convenient electricity, and manages to work many fascinating details into his larger economic and political framework. His story grows pointedly relevant when he details the 1938 efforts of municipal administrator Robert Moses to designate the Fresh Kills marshland as a landfill area (in order to fulfill his secret plan to build a bridge to New Jersey from Staten Island)Da move that infuriated environmentalists and continues to haunt the city's administrations. Miller has crafted a notably elegant treatment of this important though neglected topic. Agent, Malaga Baldi. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In densely populated New York City, garbage is a contentious political issue that, like the odorous stuff itself, never goes away. Miller is the in-house policy wonk for the city's sanitation department, and he has produced a remarkably readable history of the city's refuse-disposal problem. The smelly subject emerges as a fulcrum for the more obvious elements of civic life, such as politics and corruption, land-use battles, and the construction of the city's transportation infrastructure, which inevitably features public-works autocrat Robert Moses charging through Miller's narrative. Miller preludes that with the nineteenth-century's version of the problem: getting rid of dead animals. For decades a plant on "Barren" (Coney) Island dealt with the offal, while incinerators of other garbage dumped ashes in Queens. Miller's chapters about Moses underscore the paradox of his unaccountability with his ability to deal with garbage, albeit by creating the notorious Fresh Kills Dump on Staten Island. Coursing through the contemporary politics of NYC's garbage problem, Miller's case study is a must for the urban-studies shelf. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 425 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (November 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568581726
• ISBN-13: 978-1568581729
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,101,605 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > Science & Math > Environment > Recycling

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Blood and Filth and Fat and Foam November 22, 2000

By A. Schultz

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The colorful and fetid history of waste makes for an enervating read. Miller has done exhaustive and meticulous research to share with us the forgotten tale of where the trash went and the distressing facts about where it goes today.

There are many new, never-before revealed facts Miller has unearthed from the landfill of time-- he introduces us to an astounding and entertaining parade of bold scoundrels, do-gooder public health pioneers, social theorists, corrupt politicans, self-righteous environmentalists and a few good, clear thinkers tossed in for good measure. Miller himself is certainly one of them. He digs deep and leads us with a steady hand and a cool, observing eye to the places where were planted the seeds of public policy that have brought us to the ruin we face today. This cautionary tale applies not only to New York, though New York, as in many things, stands as the example, good and bad, of how disposal works.

Don't be put off by the subject or think this is an academic book. Miller is a superb prose stylist and his ability to summon vividly the characters and tenor of past times is often wonderfully Dickensian. This sleeper is a ripping good read. Enjoy! I've heard the author is going to be on NPR's Fresh Air in December. No pun intended, I gather...

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fat of the Land November 8, 2000

By Thomas J. Smith

Format:Paperback

As a former New Yorker, I'm enjoying this engrossing tale of money and politicians, public health and urban real estate moguls, and behind the scenes views of the forces that shaped the growth of one of the world's most dynamic cities.

Good read for those interested in history and politics, but also has enough nitty-gritty gossip and well-researched tales of corruption to be entertaining for the general reader.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Power Politics November 8, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

A richly rewarding read -- unrepentant, greedy politicians; real estate moguls of the Guilded Age; emerging awareness of public health needs; New York pathos. And a double espresso of gossip!

History and political buffs will devour; anyone interested in how one of the world's most dynamic cities rose from the mud will find this facsinating.

"Ragtime" but real.