Stephen Mosley

Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud

Today’s environmental problems—climate change, loss of biodiversity, polluted air, land, and water—all have their origins to a greater or lesser extent in how we have lived, played and worked. At a time when societies are confronted with the often dramatic consequences of past choices made in the fields of energy, technology, industry, agriculture, urbanisation and consumption, we need a history that casts more light on the ways in which unsustainable human-nature relationships came into being. This means forging stronger connections between social and environmental history. Common Ground opens up a dialogue between two sub-disciplines that to date have remained largely parallel endeavours, bringing together both established and younger scholars from both fields to explore how people’s everyday lives have connected to their environments—and with what effects. The book is organised in six sections: leisure and environment; nature and conservation; environmental conflicts; folk and scientific knowledge; environmental disasters; and energy, industry and urban infrastructure. By exploring the complex interplay between people’s day-to-day activities and ecological change, especially the values, beliefs and environmental experiences of ordinary men and women, we can better understand our past relationships with nature and perhaps make more informed planning and policy choices in the future.

Integrating the Social and Environmental in History

Common Ground

Meet Morbius Mozella: the skull-headed horror star of Hollywood's Golden Age. From his lonely childhood in Yorkshire, England, to his days as a budding performer, reluctant soldier, and psychiatric patient, this is his story. Meet the Man with Twenty Fingers, the Hedgehog Lady, and the Clay Men. Find out what part they play in Mozella's rise and fall. Meet also Benny Miller, the inexplicably popular comedian, with whom Mozella is making his 1967 comeback: The ageing thespian not only has an obnoxious co-star to deal with, but also finds himself adrift in a changing world - far more terrifying than any of his movies.

The Lives & Deaths of Morbius Mozella

In this innovative contribution to the field of environmental history, Stephen Mosley explores the devastating human and environmental costs of smoke pollution in the world’s first industrial city.

Stephen Mosley

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