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Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening
Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening
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Overview
Acclaimed historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles in vivid detail how the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring — and Carson’s close partnership with President John F. Kennedy and his administration — launched the modern environmental movement. With Silent Spring Revolution, Brinkley thrillingly caps an arc of work exploring the 20th century histories of the Presidency and ecological awareness in the US, how we moved from the conservation imperatives of Theodore Roosevelt to today’s intentional activism is a twisty tale of fits and starts, politics, money, villains, and heroes.
With the detonation of the Trinity explosion in the New Mexico desert in 1945, the United States took control of Earth’s destiny for the first time. After the Truman administration dropped atomic bombs on Japan to end World War II, a grim new epoch had arrived. During the early Cold War years, the federal government routinely detonated nuclear devices in the Nevada desert and the Marshall Islands. Not only was nuclear fallout a public health menace, but entire ecosystems were contaminated with radioactive materials. During the 1950s, an unprecedented postwar economic boom took hold, with America becoming the world’s leading hyperindustrial and military giant. But with this historic prosperity came a heavy cost: oceans began to die, wilderness vanished, the insecticide DDT poisoned ecosystems, wildlife perished, and chronic smog blighted major cities.
In Silent Spring Revolution, Douglas Brinkley pays tribute to those who combated the mauling of the natural world in the Long Sixties: Rachel Carson (a marine biologist and author), David Brower (director of the Sierra Club), Barry Commoner (an environmental justice advocate), Coretta Scott King (an antinuclear activist), Stewart Udall (the secretary of the interior), William O. Douglas (Supreme Court justice), Cesar Chavez (a labor organizer), and other crusaders are profiled with verve and insight.
Carson’s book Silent Spring, published in 1962, depicted how detrimental DDT was to living creatures. The exposé launched an ecological revolution that inspired such landmark legislation as the Wilderness Act (1964), the Clean Air Acts (1963 and 1970), and the Endangered Species Acts (1966, 1969, and 1973). In intimate detail, Brinkley extrapolates on such epic events as the Donora (Pennsylvania) smog incident, JFK’s Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Great Lakes preservation, the Santa Barbara oil spill, and the first Earth Day.
With the United States grappling with climate change and resource exhaustion, Douglas Brinkley’s meticulously researched and deftly written Silent Spring Revolution reminds us that a new generation of twenty-first-century environmentalists can save the planet from ruin.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780063212954 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 11/15/2022 |
Sales rank: | 1,036,021 |
Product dimensions: | 5.20(w) x 5.90(h) x 2.20(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface xiii
Part I Protoenvironmentalists (1945-1959)
Chapter 1 The Ebb and Flow of John F. Kennedy 3
Chapter 2 Harry Truman: Polluted and Radiated America 17
Chapter 3 Rachel Carson and the Shore of the Sea 43
Chapter 4 William O. Douglas and the Protoenvironmentalists 65
Chapter 5 Wilderness Politics, Dinosaur National Monument, and the Nature Conservancy 92
Chapter 6 Saving Shorelines 119
Chapter 7 Protesting Plastics, Nuclear Testing, and DDT 138
Part II John F. Kennedy's New Frontier (1961-1963)
Chapter 8 Forging the New Frontier: Stewart Udall and Lyndon Johnson 157
Chapter 9 Wallace Stegner's "Wilderness Letter" 183
Chapter 10 The Green Face of America 196
Chapter 11 Rachel Carson, the Laurance Rockefeller Report, and Kennedy's Science Curve 218
Chapter 12 The White House Conservation Conference (May 24-25, 1962) 234
Chapter 13 Rachel Carson's Alarm 252
Chapter 14 Point Reyes (California) and Padre Island (Texas) National Seashores 266
Chapter 15 Campaigns to Save the Hudson River and Bodega Bay 282
Chapter 16 The Tag Team of John F. Kennedy, Stewart Udall, and Rachel Carson 300
Chapter 17 The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty 322
Part III The Environmentalism of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon (1964-1973)
Chapter 18 JFK's Last Conservation Journey 333
Chapter 19 The Mississippi Fish Kill, the Clean Air Act, and American Beautification 350
Chapter 20 The Great Society: Rachel Carson and Howard Zahniser's Legacies 366
Chapter 21 The Wilderness Act of 1964 389
Chapter 22 Ending the Bulldozing of America 408
Chapter 23 America's Natural Heritage: Cape Lookout, Big Bend, the Grand Canyon 435
Chapter 24 Defenders: Historical Preservation, Endangered Species, and Bedroll Scientists 457
Chapter 25 "Sue the Bastards!" and Environmental Justice 477
Chapter 26 The Unraveling of America, 1968 501
Chapter 27 Lyndon Johnson: Champion of Wild Rivers and National Scenic Trails (October 2, 1968) 526
Chapter 28 Taking Stock of New Conservation Wins 544
Chapter 29 Santa Barbara, the Cuyahoga River, and the National Environmental Policy Act 562
Chapter 30 Generation Earth Day, 1970-1971 592
Chapter 31 Nixon's Environmental Activism of 1972: The Great Lakes Protection, the DDT Ban, and the Stockholm Conference 629
Epilogue Last Leaves on the Tree 652
Acknowledgments 675
Appendix I National Wildlife Refuges 687
Appendix II National Parks 693
Appendix III Protection for Animals Initial Endangered Species List 1966-1967 701
Notes 705
Bibliography 807
Image Credits 821
Index 825