Union Carbide’s “Hand in Things to Come”: Narrative Formations of a Culture of Toxification

Due to the booming U.S. chemical industry and the proliferation of new media, the mid-twentieth century witnessed the emergence of a distinct public vocabulary of chemistry. This vocabulary played a role in constituting U.S. consumer culture and establishing a narrative groundwork for upholding and shaping ideologies about progress, colonialism, and the value of U.S. corporate science–and the justification of corresponding large-scale environmental exploitation. This study explores that vocabulary via a textual analysis of one of the significant chemical advertising campaigns circulated at the time, Union Carbide’s “Hand in Things to Come,” which ran in popular magazines from 1950 to 1963. Findings reveal three key narrative formations about the relationships among chemistry, society, and the environment at the center of the campaign. We consider how these narrative formations contribute to dominant ideologies regarding the environment and ultimately foster an ever-increasing cultural process of toxification.