"I welcome the second edition of Edelstein's classic work. The book yields very important insights on human responses to environmental contamination. Updated and expanded conceptually and empirically, the new edition of Contaminated Communities makes excellent reading for new audiences as well as for those familiar with the first edition."

--Stephen Couch, Professor of Sociology, Pennsylvania State University

Contaminated Communities is a revision and update of Michael Edelstein's classic study of community response to toxic exposure. It is in the tradition of Adeline Levine's classic study Love Canal: People, Politics and Science and Kai Erikson's study of the Buffalo Creek disaster. Edelstein combines thick description with careful analysis to give us an updated view of the issues in studying communities under stress."

--Murray Levine, JD, Ph.D., Distinguished Service professor Emeritus, SUNYat Buffalo.

Praise for the first edition:
"Edelstein identifies specific human responses to recognized threats.� The result is an accessible work suited for most public libraries."

--Library Journal

"The book is interesting and enlightening as the author gives detailed pictures of people trying to cope with the unanticipated breadth of problems brought on by toxic pollution.� Recommended for undergraduate libraries and those carrying out research in environmental and social psychology.� Also recommended for public libraries."

--Choice

"Finding meaningful, practical literature on community response to the feargenerated by nuclear/toxic materials storage is like the search for the honest man. Edelstein's work is a welcome addition to the area of psychological impacts of development-a frequently cited and frequently unaddressed impact."

--Rita Hamm, Texas A&M University

"Taking us beyond the health impacts of toxic contamination, Professor Edelstein breaks important new ground. His detailed look at the overwhelming feelings of stress and helplessness, often as profound as the physical threat from pollution, gives policymakers valuable insight. His work should become a weapon in the fight to prevent more Love Canals."

--Rep. James Florio

"Dr. Edelstein's book breaks important new ground-and raises fresh and vital issues-on the impact of environmental hazards and on the emotional well-being of American families. While growing attention is paid to the physical effects of toxic chemicals and environmental hazards on people, an honest, serious examination of the social and psychological damage on people is sorely needed. I hope Mike's book will open debate on this much-ignored topic."

--Lois Marie Gibbs, Executive Director, Citizen's Clearinghouse for Hazardous Wastes, Inc.

"The technocratic emphasis on assessing risk has tended to turn attention away from the effect of technology on communities, on people. Edelstein has appropriately refocused our attention on how people cope with toxic exposure and how fear has colored their lives. His book is an important contribution to the understanding of a critical and current problem."

--Dorothy Nelkin, New York University

Perseus Books Group Web Site, August, 2003

Investigates the social, psychological, and emotional impacts of toxic exposure for individuals, families, and communities.

In this wholly revised Second Edition, Michael Edelstein draws on his thirty years as a community activist to provide a much-expanded theoretical foundation for understanding the psychosocial impacts of toxic contamination. Informed by social psychological theory and an extensive survey of documented cases of toxic exposure, and enlivened by excerpts drawn from more than a thousand interviews with victims, Contaminated Communities presents a candid portrayal of the toxic victim's experience and the key stages in the course of toxic disaster. The Second Edition introduces dozens of new cases and provides expanded considerations of environmental justice, environmental racism, environmental turbulence, and environmental stigma, as well as a fully articulated theory of "lifescape." The new edition moves past the well-charted role of reactive environmentalism to explore issues for a proactivist approach that employs a "third path" of social learning, sustainable innovation, consensus building, and community empowerment.