"Speaking of Annihilation": Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945

Chemical Control of Spiders and Scorpions in Urban Areas

“…If this procedure could become standardized, it would provide an accurate idea of the number of molecules used in each test, information of much greater value than the mass or volume of the pesticide needed to cause the death of these creatures. The control of organism considered as pests always raises the possibility of analogies with warfare [191] and the pesticides have very often been used in an analogous situation to the use of weapons for the destruction of enemies. However, at present it is clear that practically no pest that is a cause of concern to public health is faced with the prospect of having all its www.intechopen.com populations eradicated by man and even less, by means of chemical control only.…”

Ethics, Narrative, and Agriculture: Transforming Agricultural Practice through Ecological Imagination

“…The ubiquity of the war on nature metaphor in Western thought, highlighted during inter-war years by agricultural fertilizer and pest control companies, rendered this linkage believable, if not natural. This ''naturalized'' metaphor then helped construct a framework of annihilating the enemy (Russell 1996). As story shapes practice, practice dialectically both influences and reinforces stories, a bi-directional process.…”

Production des savoirs et représentations stratégiques

“…« Brutalisation » discursive -distanciation réelle 25 Dans le processus de « brutalisation », même les discours populaires ont de l'importance, comme le montre Edmund P. Russell en analysant les représentations de l'Autre sous la forme d'insectes à anéantir 20 . Le point de départ de son analyse est la constatation qu'en 1944-1945, deux images représentant des sujets mi-hommes, mi-insectes ont été publiées dans des périodiques aux Etats-Unis.…”