Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash

This book offers a look at the everyday act of throwing things out and its impact on American society. Author Susan Strasser turns to an essential but neglected part of that culture—trash—and finds in it unexpected meaning. Before the twentieth century, streets and bodies stank, but trash was scarce. With goods and money scarce, almost everything was reused. Strasser paints a vivid picture of an America where scavenger pigs roamed, swill children collected garbage, and itinerant peddlers traded goods for rags and bones. Over the last century, Americans have become hooked on convenience, disposability, fashion, and constant technological change, leading to unprecedented waste.

Lively and colorful, this book recaptures a hidden part of our history, illustrating that what counts as trash depends on who is counting and that what we throw away defines us as much as what we keep.