This book is the result of the apparent contradiction—at least the unexpected combination of forces—that James Longhurst encountered in peeling back the layers in the battle over air pollution control that erupted as a mass movement in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the early 1970s. The value to those interested in the history of the modern environmental movement is in his locating the philosophical roots of the movement, in form and in citizen activism, in the values and style of the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Progressives, on the one hand, and the Civil Rights movement of the 1950–60s, on the other. The message about the Pittsburgh story, and by implication the deeper story of the environmental movement, is that it can be understood only at the conjunction of profound values in American political culture regarding the right and responsibility of citizens to mobilize to protect their own interests and, in this instance, their physical health (the citizen component) and the expression of that responsibility, awakened in the 1960s, in tackling some of the worst polluting effects of the industrial age.

Longhurst views the movement through the lens of the citizens who rose up in Pittsburgh (long infamous as “Smoke City”), frustrated with decades of unfulfilled promises by elected politicians and industrial leaders to reduce air pollution from what at the time was probably one of the two or three worst urban air pollution hotspots in the nation. Due to its topography and unique location at the convergence of two major inland waterways, accessible to coal, iron, and other natural resources, Pittsburgh faced a horrendous environmental situation that Longhurst traces all the way back to the early 1800s. In this sense, as an example of the rise of modern environmentalism, the Pittsburgh story is also a narrative of an extreme case. Typical it was not, but very useful in highlighting the salient dimensions of the struggle: the power of entrenched old industrial interests; the mobilization of (even) blue collar workers—in particular mothers—into action; the important object lessons of Progressivism and Civil Rights for the environmental movement; and the transformative power that can result. As Longhurst discovered: “They became citizens first and environmentalists second, first demanding their rights as citizens in a participatory democracy in order to then work toward their environmental goals” (p. 29).

For those familiar with the struggles across the United States in the 1970s against air and water pollution in places beyond Pittsburgh—from Los Angeles to Cleveland to Boston—this story will come as no surprise. It is about real politics and power struggles that played out in local town councils, the debates over the science of health effects, the growing animosities between citizen environmentalists and their industrial protagonists, the importance of the new federal air and water laws, and the regulatory powers of the new US Environmental Protection Agency. It is about jobs and especially their loss with the shuttering of industrial facilities—real or simply threatened.

For the unfamiliar, on the other hand, this book will serve as an eye opener. It is readable, full of personal stories and snapshots of organizations on the ground, and it presents a captivating account of the very early and raw era of what is today a far more institutionalized, conventional, and professionalized environmental movement.

The conceptual themes of the book about citizens and environmentalism are raised in the opening chapter and then woven throughout, with the importance of this story for participatory democracy discussed in the concluding chapter. The five chapters that comprise the body of the book are focused on the players, where they confronted one another and how, and the unfolding battle against air pollution in Pittsburgh. They cover the long history of industrial development and the concomitant air pollution there, including past citizen movements and their reemergence. Of particular significance in Pittsburgh is the role played by women of all classes—the middle and professional classes as well as the wives of the working class. Also of particular importance to the Pittsburgh experience is the dominant role played by major steel corporations in the life of the city—United States Steel and Jones & Laughlin—and how the environmental movement impacted them at the same time they were undergoing tremendous global competition; indeed, they were engaged in a fight for their very existence. In a not unfamiliar experience in the saga of the implementation of clean air policies throughout the United States, we learn not only that “the devil is in the details” but that there is no single arena where issues are resolved: issues are pursued in seemingly unending venues at the local, state, and national regulatory levels, through the politics of city council and agencies, in the courts, and within the halls of the scientific community.

Citizen Environmentalists is a reminder of and valuable contribution to an understanding of the role of citizens in our democratic society and how the issues of environmental protection can serve to illuminate its importance. It also underscores the fact that the cultural and rhetorical commitment to citizen engagement, while crucial as backdrop, does not guarantee or assure the actual exercise of it, which is inherently difficulty to secure and sustain.