Müll

A Dirty History of Humanity is the subtitle given by historian Roman Köster to his most recent book, Rubbish. To explore the relationship of humanity with sorted and discarded things, Köster describes our handling of waste from the Stone Age to the present day. He shows how the disposal of waste has changed our lives from the time we settled down until today, and especially how urban history is inextricably linked with the history of waste. Ancient Rome struggled with waste problems as much as the metropolises of the 19th century. But everything fades into the background compared with the waste mountains of today.

In the pre-industrial age, Köster argues that waste was primarily a practical problem. It lay around, smelled foul and blocked traffic. As urban growth rapidly spread in the late 18th century, closer attention was paid to waste that caused the outbreak of typhoid and cholera epidemics. Today, rubbish is not only a hygienic problem but part of the global environmental crisis.

Where do the causes of this lie, and how has our relationship changed over the course of history to the process of throwing away and recycling? How has rubbish shaped the pattern of settlements and cities as well as formed the lives of their inhabitants from the Stone Age to the present day?

***BIOGRAPHIES***

Roman Köster
b. 1975, is a German historian. He is a research associate at the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. His book Rubbish has been nominated for the German Business Book Prize 2024. Recently published: Rubbish, 2024.

An enlightening book that drastically demonstrates how much our everyday routine and our way of life is inextricably connected with rubbish.
Klaus Taschwer, Der Standard