Proving Grounds brings together a wide range of scholars across disciplines and geographical borders to deepen our understanding of the environmental impact that the U.S. military presence has had at home and abroad. The essays in this collection survey the environmental damage caused by weapons testing and military bases to local residents, animal populations, and landscapes, and they examine the military’s efforts to close and repurpose bases—often as wildlife reserves. Together they present a complex and nuanced view that embraces the ironies, contradictions, and unintended consequences of U.S. militarism around the world. In complicating our understanding of the American military’s worldwide presence, the essayists also reveal the rare cases when the military is actually ahead of the curve on environmental regulation compared to the private sector. The result is the most comprehensive examination to date of the U.S. military’s environmental footprint—for better or worse—across the globe.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Defending the Nation, Protecting the Land
2. Weather, Otters, and Bombs
3. Incident at Galisteo
4. “This Is Really Bad Stuff Buried Here”
5. The War on Plants
6. Addressing Environmental Risks and Mobilizing Democracy?
7. Reality Revealed
8. A Wildlife Insurgency
9. Restoration and Meaning on Former Military Lands in the United States
Selected Bibliography
Contributors
Index
About the author
Edwin A. Martini is associate professor of history at Western Michigan University.
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