Robert Gottlieb :: Publications

Books

Reinventing Los Angeles

By Robert Gottlieb
November 2007
MIT Press
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Los Angeles--the place without a sense of place, famous for sprawl and overdevelopment and defined by its car-clogged freeways--might seem inhospitable to efforts to connect with nature and community. But in Reinventing Los Angeles, educator and activist Robert Gottlieb describes how imaginative and innovative social movements have coalesced around the issues of water development, cars and freeways, and land use, to create a more livable and sustainable city.

Gottlieb traces the emergence of Los Angeles as a global city in the twentieth century and describes its continuing evolution today. He examines the powerful influences of immigration and economic globalization as they intersect with changes in the politics of water, transportation, and land use, and illustrates each of these core concerns with an account of grass roots and activist responses: efforts to reenvision the concrete-bound, fenced-off Los Angeles River as a natural resource; "Arroyofest," the closing of the Pasadena Freeway for a Sunday of walking and bike riding; and immigrants’ initiatives to create urban gardens and connect with their countries of origin.

Reinventing Los Angeles is a unique blend of personal narrative (Gottlieb himself participated in several of the grass roots actions described in the book) and historical and theoretical discussion. It provides a road map for a new environmentalism of everyday life, demonstrating the opportunities for renewal in a global city.

Robert Gottlieb is Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Director of the Urban and Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He is the author of Environmentalism Unbound: Exploring New Pathways for Change (MIT Press), Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement, and other books.

The Next Los Angeles

By Robert Gottlieb, Mark Vallianatos, Regina M. Freer, and Peter Dreier.
January 2005
UC Press
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At its most lively, this book provides an intelligent insider's account of the construction of Progressive Los Angeles Network, or PLAN, and the emergence of a powerful labor-Latino bloc that provides progressive L.A. with much of its heart and soul. But the book offers readers more, including details of a grassroots-driving progressive agenda and a revealing social and political history... The authors don't shy away from discussing problems and challenges... A good starting point for any serious student of forward-looking municipal politics. "--James Goodno, San Francisco Chronicle

"Far and away the best single book for understanding the politics of Los Angeles. In light of that city's statewide influence, it is also a must read for those interested in the future of state politics. The book's inspiring accounts of grassroots victories is perfect for getting activists in an upbeat mindset for the start of a new year. And that is something we all need."--Randy Shaw, Beyondchron.org

"With this rich account of its community and labor struggles, the city of angels--and apocalypse-- becomes the city of hope."--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

"This wonderful book, with its evocations of LA's alternative histories, and its bold templates for social and environmental justice, is proof that the American Left is alive and well, especially in Southern California."--Mike Davis, author of Dead Cities

"A rare book combining history, analysis, strategy and a platform - and it may well be carried out in this decade."--Tom Hayden, former State Senator, Los Angeles

Environmentalism Unbound

By Robert Gottlieb
August 2002
MIT Press
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In Environmentalism Unbound, Robert Gottlieb proposes a new strategy for social and environmental change that involves reframing and linking the movements for environmental justice and pollution prevention. According to Gottlieb, the environmental movement's narrow conception of environment has isolated it from vital issues of everyday life, such as workplace safety, healthy communities, and food security, that are often viewed separately as industrial, community, or agricultural concerns. This fragmented approach prevents an awareness of how these issues are also environmental issues.

After tracing a history of environmental perspectives on land and resources, city and countryside, and work and industry, Gottlieb focuses on three compelling examples of this new approach to social and environmental change. The first involves a small industry (dry cleaning) and the debate over pollution prevention approaches; the second involves a set of products (janitorial cleaning supplies) that may be hazardous to workers; and the third explores the obstacles and opportunities presented by community or regional approaches to food supply in the face of an increasingly globalized food system. (MIT Press, 2001)

Reducing Toxics

By Robert Gottlieb
Island Press
April 1995
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In Reducing Toxics, leading experts address industry, technology, health, and policy issues and explore the potential for pollution prevention at the industry and facility levels. They consider both the regulatory and institutional settings of toxics reduction initiatives, prescribe strategies for developing a prevention framework, and apply these principles in analyzing industry case studies. Among the topics considered are:the evolution of, and limits to, current environmental policy

incorporating prevention into production planning and decisionmaking
do voluntary programs lead to industry greening or greenwashing?
case studies of the chemical, aerosols, radiator repair and electric vehicle industries
opportunities for and barriers to pollution prevention

Reducing Toxics offers an analytic framework for defining and understanding different approaches in the toxics area and describes the basis for a new policy and industrial decisionmaking construct. (Island Press, 1995)

Forcing the Spring

By Robert Gottlieb
Island Press
1993
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Forcing the Spring challenges standard histories of the environmental movement by offering a broad and inclusive interpretation of past environmentalist thought and a sweeping redefinition of the nature of the contemporary environmental movement. Robert Gottlieb demonstrates the centrality of environmental concerns to a wide range of social movements of the past century as he explores the connections between pressures on human and natural environments and the role of these pressures in shaping society. His analysis provides fundamental new insights into the past and future of the American environmental movement by placing it within the larger context of American social history.

After considering the historical roots of environmentalism from the 1890s through the 1960s, Gottlieb discusses the rise and consolidation of environmental groups in the years between Earth Day 1970 and Earth Day 1990. He examines the increasing professionalization of the major environmental organizations and the parallel rise of community-based groups over the past decade, and ends with an in-depth consideration of the role of ethnicity, gender, and class in the formation and definition of movements. (Island Press, 1993)

Thirst for Growth

By Robert Gottlieb and Margaret FitzSimmons
University of Arizona Press
1991
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An overview of the key issues of public accountability and water policy innovation that confront urban and agricultural water agencies throughout the country--notably in California where the prospects for future water development have become especially problematic. Focusing on six agencies in the Southern California region, they offer a series of case studies analyzing the issues of water quality, including groundwater contamination and disinfection by-products; reallocation and transfer of existing supplies; and management programs based on pricing changes, the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater supplies, and increased storage capacity aimed at greater efficiencies in stretching those existing supplies. (University of Arizona Press, 1991; Paperback Edition, University of Arizona Press, 1994)

War on Waste

By Robert Gottlieb and Louis Blumberg
Island Press
1989
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A comprehensive analysis of the solid waste problem and the major alternatives for a solution to the crisis. (Island Press, 1989)

A Life of its Own

By Robert Gottlieb
Harvest Books
1988
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Concern and disputes over water have shifted from control of quantity to control of its quality, explains Gottlieb, member of the Metropolitan Water Board of Southern California and coauthor of Empires in the Sun , in a revealing study of the private water industry and public agencies that play a crucial role in economics and politics. The author analyzes how policies effect crop selection, production, labor and land values along with abuses created by vast new government-subsidized irrigation systems. While agriculture and growing urban centers competed for water and power resources, the pollution by sewage, pesticides and industrial contaminants of surface and ground water in urban and rural areas that endangers them both gave rise in the 1970s to a powerful environmental movement that opposes Army Engineers Corps projects, over-exploitation of river systems such as the Colorado, and supports clean water laws to regulate water systems taken over by munici-palities from private companies. The results of ongoing debates between private profit and public interest groups over the future of water policy, Gottlieb stresses, will largely determine our environmental priorities. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988; Paperback Edition, HBJ, 1992)