Country Capitalism: How Corporations from the American South Remade Our Economy and the Planet

by Bart Elmore

Overview

The rural roads that led to our planet-changing global economy ran through the American South. That region's impact on the interconnected histories of business and ecological change is narrated here by acclaimed scholar Bart Elmore, who uses the histories of five southern firms—Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines, Walmart, FedEx, and Bank of America—to investigate the environmental impact of our have-it-now, fly-by-night, buy-on-credit economy. Drawing on exclusive interviews with company executives, corporate archives, and other records, Elmore explores the historical, economic, and ecological conditions that gave rise to these five trailblazing corporations. He then considers what each has become: an essential presence in the daily workings of the global economy and an unmistakable contributor to the reshaping of the world's ecosystems. Even as businesses invest in sustainability initiatives and respond to new calls for corporate responsibility, Elmore shows the limits of their efforts to "green" their operations and offers insights on how governments and activists can push corporations to do better.

At the root, Elmore reveals a fundamental challenge: Our lives are built around businesses that connect far-flung rural places to urban centers and global destinations. This "country capitalism" that proved successful in the US South has made it possible to satisfy our demands at the click of a button, but each click comes with hidden environmental costs. This book is a must-read for anyone who hopes to create an ecologically sustainable future economy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469673332
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	05/23/2023
Series:	A Ferris and Ferris Book
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	617,324
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Bart Elmore is associate professor of environmental history at The Ohio State University and the 2022 recipient of the Dan David Prize. His previous books include Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism and Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This engaging and important book reveals how five of today's most influential global corporations developed from common roots in the US South and are implicated in exacerbating ecological change, especially climate warming. For its contributions to the history of American business and environmental history, and for the ways it highlights the ecological impact of economic development in the South and beyond, Elmore's work deserves a broad audience."—Ellen Griffith Spears, author of Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town

Bart Elmore shows us that many of the nation's most innovative corporations sprang from the soil of the rural South to transform global capitalism and the global environment in distinctive and troubling ways. Country Capitalism is a brilliant account of the region's surprisingly expansive—and destructive—reach."—Paul S. Sutter, author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Gullies: Providence Canyon and the Soils of the South

Editorial Reviews

. . . . Even-handed, informative . . . . A compelling argument that companies are willing but not eager to fight climate change."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-02-25
How five major U.S. corporations based in the South are dealing with climate change.

In his latest, environmental history professor Elmore, the author of Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism and Seed Money: Monsanto's Past and Our Food Future, makes an evenhanded, informative effort to view matters from the points of view of Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines, Walmart, FedEx, and Bank of America. Of course, such massive corporations focus on profit, but they have no objection to a nominal expense for beneficent projects. Currently, pressure is increasing to spend money fighting climate change. Elmore begins with a short history of each company and then describes their responses, with outcomes varying from modest to minimal. Few readers would expect Coca-Cola to lead these efforts, but its CEO was the only one to pledge to eliminate its major pollutant, hydrofluorocarbons, used in the world’s refrigeration systems, which are thousands of times worse than carbon dioxide in warming the planet. Although converting to other chemicals has proved unexpectedly difficult, Coca-Cola did not back away from its pledge, but the results have been unimpressive so far. Delta boasts that it reduces its carbon footprint by flying fuel-efficient aircraft, but Elmore shows how there is less there than meets the eye. Since fuel is an airline’s highest operating cost, efficiency is good business. Ironically, with declining petroleum prices in the 2010s, older gas guzzlers from the 1970s became so cheap that Delta began investing in them. Walmart, which sucks up land and small businesses, imports most merchandise from China, and pays workers poorly, proclaims its greenness but seems to be dragging its feet. Although not widely considered a polluter, Bank of America admits that its loans support urban sprawl, highways, fossil fuel production, and the destruction of wetlands and forests, and it intends to continue those practices.

A compelling argument that companies are willing but not eager to fight climate change.

Kirkus Reviews