A people's history of environmentalism in the United States

Author / Creator

Montrie, Chad

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

This title provides a fresh look at the history of environmentalism in the United States, challenging current thinking and presenting an innovative perspective. It offers an innovative account of t...

This title provides a fresh look at the history of environmentalism in the United States, challenging current thinking and presenting an innovative perspective. It offers an innovative account of the history of environmentalism in the United States, challenging the dominant narrative in the field. In the widely held version of events, the U.S. environmental movement was born with the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962 and was driven by the increased leisure and wealth of an educated middle class. The author's account moves the origins of environmentalism much further back in time and attributes the growth of environmental awareness to working people and their families. From the antebellum era to the end of the twentieth century, ordinary Americans have been at the forefront of organizing to save themselves and their communities from environmental harm. Autoworkers in Michigan and coal miners in Kentucky in the 1940s, and even antebellum mill girls and farmers, all took direct action to protest industrial waste in rivers, polluted air and the damage that strip mining was doing to the environment. They and countless common people drew on their own unique experiences to acquire a grasp of ecological principles, and act. This interpretation is a substantial recasting of the past, giving a more accurate picture of what happened, when, and why at the beginnings of the environmental movement.

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