Carl A. Zimring
Encyclopedia
Carl Abraham Zimring is an American
environmental historian. He currently serves as an assistant professor at Roosevelt University
, where he and Professors Michael A. Bryson and D. Bradford Hunt founded the Sustainability Studies program in 2010. Zimring’s research focuses on ways that human societies manage wastes, and how waste management practices shape environmental, technological, economic, and social systems. His book Cash for Your Trash is considered a sweeping account of industrial recycling long before residential recycling became popular, and a fine contribution to urban and environmental history. He has published more than twenty essays, reviews, and articles in scholarly journals and publications ranging from Environmental History to History News Network.
Zimring received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, where he co-authored “The Struggle for Smoke Control in St. Louis: Achievement and Emulation” with his dissertation advisor Joel A. Tarr for Andrew Hurley’s volume Common Fields: An Environmental History of St. Louis. He also holds a BA (1991) from the University of California at Santa Cruz and MA degrees from the University of Chicago
(1993) and Carnegie Mellon University
(1995). Before arriving at Roosevelt University, Zimring taught a variety of environmental history seminars at Oberlin College
, and history surveys at Michigan Technological University
and the University of Canterbury
. He has been an United States Environmental Protection Agency
Science to Achieve Results (STAR) fellow and a Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Special Collections Baird Society Scholar-in-Residence.
In 2010, Zimring received the American Society for Environmental History
's Samuel Hays Research Fellowship for his forthcoming book project on waste, environmental racism, and whiteness in the United States.
“‘Neon, Junk, and Ruined Landscape’: Competing Visions of America’s Roadsides and the Highway Beautification Act of 1965,” in Christof Mauch and Thomas Zeller (eds.), The World Beyond the Windshield: Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008.
“Recycling Is Not Garbage: Market Agents and Municipal Recycling in New York City,” Progress in Industrial Ecology, Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 2006), pp. 329–343.
“Dirty Work: How Hygiene and Xenophobia Marginalized the American Waste Trades 1870-1930,” Environmental History, Vol. 9, No. 1 (January 2004), pp. 90–112.
“The Struggle for Smoke Control in St. Louis: Achievement and Emulation,” with Joel A. Tarr in Andrew Hurley (ed.), Common Fields: The Environmental History of St. Louis. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1997, pp. 190–220.
“Urbanization: Population Shifts and Migration Patterns,” in Char Miller (ed.), The Atlas of U.S. and Canadian Environmental History. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 78–79.
“Review of Daniel Eli Burnstein’s Next to Godliness: Confronting Dirt and Despair in Progressive Era New York City,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Summer 2007), pp. 149–150.
“Review of Catherine Gudis’s Buyways: Billboards, Automobiles, and the American Landscape,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 1 (February 2006), pp. 171–173.
“Review of Martin V. Melosi’s Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment,” The Public Historian, Vol. 27, No. 4 (November 2005), pp. 118–120.
“Review of Susan R. Schrepfer and Philip Scranton (eds.), Industrializing Organisms: Introducing Evolutionary History,” Enterprise and Society, Vol. 5, No. 4 (December 2004), pp. 731–733.
“Review of David Naguib Pellow’s Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago,” Enterprise and Society, Vol. 4, No. 2 (June 2003), pp. 387–388.
“Review of Thomas D. Beamish’s Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis,” Environmental History, Vol. 8, No. 2 (April 2003), pp. 333–334.
“Review of Theodore Binnema’s Common & Contested Ground: A Human and Environmental History of the Northwest Plains,” H-Environment website, August 2002.
“Review of Ronald C. Tobey’s Technology as Freedom: The New Deal and the Electrical Modernization of the American Home,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 1 (February 1999), pp. 32–34.
“Review of Mark H. Rose’s Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America,” H-Urban website, January 1997.
Michael P. Conzen and Carl A. Zimring (eds.), Looking for Lemont: Place & People in an Illinois Canal Town. Chicago: Committee on Geographical Studies, University of Chicago, 1994.
Michael P. Conzen, Glenn M. Richard, and Carl A. Zimring (eds.), The Industrial Revolution in the Upper Illinois Valley. Chicago: Committee on Geographical Studies, University of Chicago, 1993.
“The Economic Crisis is an Environmental Crisis: Trash Has Crashed,” History News Network, February 9, 2009.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
environmental historian. He currently serves as an assistant professor at Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University
Roosevelt University is a coeducational, private university with campuses in Chicago, Illinois and Schaumburg, Illinois. Founded in 1945, the university is named in honor of both former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. The university's curriculum is based on...
, where he and Professors Michael A. Bryson and D. Bradford Hunt founded the Sustainability Studies program in 2010. Zimring’s research focuses on ways that human societies manage wastes, and how waste management practices shape environmental, technological, economic, and social systems. His book Cash for Your Trash is considered a sweeping account of industrial recycling long before residential recycling became popular, and a fine contribution to urban and environmental history. He has published more than twenty essays, reviews, and articles in scholarly journals and publications ranging from Environmental History to History News Network.
Zimring received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, where he co-authored “The Struggle for Smoke Control in St. Louis: Achievement and Emulation” with his dissertation advisor Joel A. Tarr for Andrew Hurley’s volume Common Fields: An Environmental History of St. Louis. He also holds a BA (1991) from the University of California at Santa Cruz and MA degrees from the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
(1993) and Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
(1995). Before arriving at Roosevelt University, Zimring taught a variety of environmental history seminars at Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
, and history surveys at Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University is a public research university located in Houghton, Michigan, United States. Its main campus sits on on a bluff overlooking Portage Lake...
and the University of Canterbury
University of Canterbury
The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...
. He has been an United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
Science to Achieve Results (STAR) fellow and a Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Smithsonian Institution Libraries
The Smithsonian Institution Libraries system comprises 20 libraries serving the various Smithsonian Institution museums and research centers. SIL's holdings include 1.5 million volumes as well as a wide array of digital resources. The collections focus primarily on science, art, history and...
Special Collections Baird Society Scholar-in-Residence.
In 2010, Zimring received the American Society for Environmental History
American Society for Environmental History
The American Society for Environmental History is a professional society for the field of environmental history. It publishes Environmental History. The ASEH was founded in 1977....
's Samuel Hays Research Fellowship for his forthcoming book project on waste, environmental racism, and whiteness in the United States.
Book
Cash for Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America. New Brunswick, N.J. and London: Rutgers University Press, 2005.Selected Articles and Book Chapters
“Creating the Sustainable City: Developing an Interdisciplinary Introduction to Urban Environmental Studies for a General Education Curriculum,” with Michael A. Bryson in Metropolitan Universities, forthcoming.“‘Neon, Junk, and Ruined Landscape’: Competing Visions of America’s Roadsides and the Highway Beautification Act of 1965,” in Christof Mauch and Thomas Zeller (eds.), The World Beyond the Windshield: Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2008.
“Recycling Is Not Garbage: Market Agents and Municipal Recycling in New York City,” Progress in Industrial Ecology, Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 2006), pp. 329–343.
“Dirty Work: How Hygiene and Xenophobia Marginalized the American Waste Trades 1870-1930,” Environmental History, Vol. 9, No. 1 (January 2004), pp. 90–112.
“The Struggle for Smoke Control in St. Louis: Achievement and Emulation,” with Joel A. Tarr in Andrew Hurley (ed.), Common Fields: The Environmental History of St. Louis. St. Louis: Missouri Historical Society, 1997, pp. 190–220.
Encyclopedia Entries
“Air Pollution,” in David Goldfield (ed.), Encyclopedia of American Urban History. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications Inc., 2007, pp. 20–22.“Urbanization: Population Shifts and Migration Patterns,” in Char Miller (ed.), The Atlas of U.S. and Canadian Environmental History. New York: Routledge, 2003, pp. 78–79.
Reviews
“Review of Martin V. Melosi’s The Sanitary City: Environmental Services in Urban America from Colonial Times to the Present,” Environmental History, Vol. 14, No. 2 (April 2009).“Review of Daniel Eli Burnstein’s Next to Godliness: Confronting Dirt and Despair in Progressive Era New York City,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 38, No. 1 (Summer 2007), pp. 149–150.
“Review of Catherine Gudis’s Buyways: Billboards, Automobiles, and the American Landscape,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 75, No. 1 (February 2006), pp. 171–173.
“Review of Martin V. Melosi’s Garbage in the Cities: Refuse, Reform, and the Environment,” The Public Historian, Vol. 27, No. 4 (November 2005), pp. 118–120.
“Review of Susan R. Schrepfer and Philip Scranton (eds.), Industrializing Organisms: Introducing Evolutionary History,” Enterprise and Society, Vol. 5, No. 4 (December 2004), pp. 731–733.
“Review of David Naguib Pellow’s Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chicago,” Enterprise and Society, Vol. 4, No. 2 (June 2003), pp. 387–388.
“Review of Thomas D. Beamish’s Silent Spill: The Organization of an Industrial Crisis,” Environmental History, Vol. 8, No. 2 (April 2003), pp. 333–334.
“Review of Theodore Binnema’s Common & Contested Ground: A Human and Environmental History of the Northwest Plains,” H-Environment website, August 2002.
“Review of Ronald C. Tobey’s Technology as Freedom: The New Deal and the Electrical Modernization of the American Home,” Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 1 (February 1999), pp. 32–34.
“Review of Mark H. Rose’s Cities of Light and Heat: Domesticating Gas and Electricity in Urban America,” H-Urban website, January 1997.
Editing Contributions
Peter N. Stearns (ed.), World History in Documents: A Comparative Reader. New York: New York University Press, 1998. (Assisted Peter Stearns in selecting and editing primary sources.)Michael P. Conzen and Carl A. Zimring (eds.), Looking for Lemont: Place & People in an Illinois Canal Town. Chicago: Committee on Geographical Studies, University of Chicago, 1994.
Michael P. Conzen, Glenn M. Richard, and Carl A. Zimring (eds.), The Industrial Revolution in the Upper Illinois Valley. Chicago: Committee on Geographical Studies, University of Chicago, 1993.
News Articles and Op-Ed Essays
“Labor History and Culture in Chicago: LAWCHA 2009,” History News Network, June 4, 2009.“The Economic Crisis is an Environmental Crisis: Trash Has Crashed,” History News Network, February 9, 2009.