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Although poisonous substances have been a hazard for the whole of human history, it is only with the development and large-scale production of new chemical substances over the last two centuries that toxic, manmade pollutants have become such a varied and widespread danger. Covering a host of both notorious and little-known chemicals, the chapters in this collection investigate the emergence of specific toxic, pathogenic, carcinogenic, and ecologically harmful chemicals as well as the scientific, cultural and legislative responses they have prompted. Each study situates chemical hazards in a long-term and transnational framework and demonstrates the importance of considering both the natural and the social contexts in which their histories have unfolded.
About the author
Ernst Homburg is Professor of History of Science and Technology Emeritus at Maastricht University. His scholarly work has included the co-editorship of two multivolume book series on the history of technology in the Netherlands, as well as of New Dictionary of Scientific Biography (2007), and Solvay: History of a Multinational Family Firm (2012, with Kenneth Bertrams and Nicolas Coupain).
Elisabeth Vaupel studied chemistry, biology and history in Mainz, Freiburg/Breisgau and Munich. She is a historian of chemistry in the research institute of the Deutsches Museum, where she was previously head of the chemistry department. She also teaches the history of chemistry at Stuttgart University. She is co-editor of Das Deutsche Museum in der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus: Eine Bestandsaufnahme (2010, with Stefan L. Wolff).
Summary
Covering a host of both notorious and little-known substances, the chapters in this collection investigate the emergence of specific toxic, pathogenic, carcinogenic, and ecologically harmful chemicals as well as the scientific, cultural and legislative responses they have prompted over the past two hundred years.
