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Our relationship with nature goes far beyond resources, amenity, or the scientific idea of an archive we learn to read. There are, as The Environment shows, ethical complexities in how we use and abuse the planet—and in how we frame its improbable riches.
Despite the importance in recent decades of environmentalism, environmental protection, environmental science, and so on, there has been strikingly little discussion of what exactly the environment is. Paul Warde, Libby Robin, and Sverker Sörlin examine the history of the concept as it has developed since the end of the Second World War, when they argue it took on its modern significance. The book is strongest in tracing the ways that changes in scientific institutions helped develop the modern idea of environment, as well as in its discussion of the ways that idea entered the popular imagination through works by Rachel Carson and others.
This engaging and accessible book should be required reading for anyone concerned with the development of 'the environment' as a conceptual lodestone of both science and politics in the mid- to late-twentieth century. Moreover, it will be richly rewarding for anyone wishing to teach, research, or simply better understand the path dependencies and political dynamics of environmental issues today.
Demonstrates the power of history to speak into the present. A wonderfully succinct, compelling, and revealing piece of writing.
This is a highly recommended book that agricultural and rural historians will appreciate the significance of in tracing the history of the environment. It will be of interest to a wide academic readership, including historians of the environment, ideas, politics, science and technology. More importantly, this book deserves to be read by the wider public as it explains how perceptions of the environment have evolved relative to the history of the twentieth century. Understanding this history can inform contemporary responses to present and future environmental issues.
Impressive in the freshness of its argument, the depth of its coverage, and the seamlessness with which its authors, each a distinguished environmental historian, have managed to collaborate in its production. This book will appeal to anyone with a serious intellectual or practical interest in environmental issues. It is hard to imagine that anyone, no matter how extensive their familiarity with the subject, will not learn from this book.
The Environment is intellectual history of the highest order. Through careful research and extraordinarily wide source material, the authors deftly and expertly unravel the complex and fascinating genealogy of one of the most powerful and influential concepts of the modern era.
The team of Warde, Robin, and Srlin offer a compact, clear, and crisp intellectual history of the concept of the environment. Ranging across the Anglophone world and sometimes beyond, they bring insight and historical context to their analysis of the crucial thinkers, ideas, and debates in environmental science as it evolved since the 1940s.
What distinguishes this book's approach to intellectual history—in this case, the history of the idea of 'environment'—is the authors' meticulous and unwavering attention to histories of expertise, institutional power, and dominant imaginaries that influence the public career of an influential idea. A must read for those debating the environment today.
About
Book Details
Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5
x 8
Pages
256
ISBN
9781421440026
Illustration Description
2 figures
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1. Road to Survival
Chapter 2. Expertise for the Future
Chapter 3. Resources for Freedom
Chapter 4. Ecology on the March
Chapter 5. Climate Enters the Environment
Chapter 6.
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1. Road to Survival
Chapter 2. Expertise for the Future
Chapter 3. Resources for Freedom
Chapter 4. Ecology on the March
Chapter 5. Climate Enters the Environment
Chapter 6. "The Earth Is One but the World Is Not
Chapter 7. Seeking a Safe Future
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index
Resources
