Silent Spring is a watershed moment in the history of environmentalism. The 1962 work by Rachel Carson is credited with launching the modern environmental movement. It provoked the ban on DDT in the US ten years later and it has been an inspiration for feminist health movements. Yet changes in public health policy are possibly the most important legacy. In synthesizing a jumble of scientific and medical information into a coherent, readable argument about health and environment, Carson successfully challenged major chemical industries and the idea that modern societies could and should exert mastery over nature at any cost. Carson's Silent Spring provides an in-depth analysis and contextualisation of Silent Spring. It also surveys the lasting impact the text has had on the environmentalist movement in the last fifty years. Carson's Silent Spring is the first book to provide a full overview of what is a seminal work in the history of environmentalism.
1. The Post-War Machine in the Garden
2. Passionate Anger
3. Needless Havoc
4. One in Four
5. Other Roads
6. The Mad Woman Triumphs
Index
Joni Seager is Professor and Chair of Global Studies at Bentley University, Boston, USA.