Entangling the Firm with Nature

Corporations often strive to obscure the fact that their products originate from the earth—that ice-cold beer in fridge, ubiquitous electricity at the flip of a switch, and conveniently packaged dog treats are great examples. Yet, despite all the marketing, branding, and sleek packaging, firms share intimate links with the environment. Through a collaborative synthesis of business and environmental history, this panel explores the dialectic relationship between firms and the material world. While these three papers cover a diverse array of corporations and industries, they strive to demonstrate that by inserting the material world into narratives primarily focused on markets, technology, and managerial expertise, historians can paint a unique and more holistic picture of business practices. Transporting our audience from Midwestern prairies to Rust Belt cities and even to the docks of Liverpool, England, these papers collectively uncover how business and nature have impacted one another. Connecting business with environmental history reaffirms the notion that businesses are not isolated entities but deeply enmeshed within a global ecological framework that has repercussions, both concrete and ideological, that profoundly affect labor, management, and consumers alike.