Making Threats ─ Biofears And Environmental Anxieties

This collection is a multidisciplinary consideration of how fears of environmental and biological threats are produced and deployed in the media and the culture. Hartmann (director, Population and Development Program, Hampshire College), Subramaniam (women's studies, U. of Massachusetts), and Zerner (environmental studies, Sarah Lawrence College) present nine papers discussing the political economy of security fears, Malthusianism and the terror of scarcity, the debates of genetically modified foods, the rhetoric of biological invasions, the political construction of civilian risk of bioterror, and the demography of perceived threats, among other topics. The essays are accompanied by "reflections" drawing out some further implications. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Betsy Hartmann is the Director of the Population and Development Program at Hampshire College. Banu Subramaniam is Assistant Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Charles Zerner is Professor of Environmental Studies at Sarah Lawrence College.