The Greening of Pentagon Brownfields: Using Environmental
Discourse to Redevelop Former Military Bases. By Kenneth N. Hansen.
Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004. 164p. $60.00.
In this book, Kenneth Hansen has produced an interesting assessment of
how states and localities have increased their institutional capacities to
deal with the unanticipated consequences of federal downsizing and
pollution at military bases in the 1990s. Hansen uses survey data from 44
of the 115 military installations that were recommended for closure or
realignment by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) between
1988 and 1995, as well as several case studies of military bases, to
support his core proposition—that environmental factors are among
the key intervening variables in the base redevelopment process. The
topics discussed are especially timely, given the highly publicized and
contentious battle over base closings this past year.