Quotes
“This is an excellent book—well written,
exhaustively researched, original, and brilliantly conceived. Anyone interested
in the history of the South, business history, civil rights, and environmental
justice will find this essential reading. But more than that, this is a great
story—at turns inspiring, maddening, depressing, and instructive. Everyone
knows about Love Canal; Times Beach, Missouri; and Three Mile Island.
Hopefully, after this book is published, everyone will know about Anniston as
well!”
Gerald Markowitz, John Jay College and Graduate Center, City University of New York
“Baptized in PCBs is a richly textured history
of Anniston, Alabama, and the movements of chemicals, capital, and people over
a century that transformed it into one of the most toxic towns in the United
States. Spears offers a compelling and compassionate account of the South’s
hope for the chemical industry in the wake of Reconstruction and the
environmental and racial inequalities that accrued over time. It is a telling
tale of toxic secrets and legal challenges and the heartbreaks and triumphs
that are familiar to toxic towns across America seeking redemption and justice.” Gregg Mitman, author of Breathing Space