"In Smokestacks and Progressives: Environmentalists, Engineers and Air Quality in America 1881-1951, David Stradling describes the evolution of one of America's first environmental movements--the antismoke crusade of the early 1900s. The roots of modern environmentalism, Stradling explains, reach deep into the Victorian era. Early reformers connected beauty, health, and cleanliness with morality and demanded government assistance in maintaining all four. Air quality became an important issue for middle-class residents in coal-dependent cities--how could a city without pure air, they asked, truly be clean, healthful, and moral? Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.