Shades of Green examines the impact of political, economic, religious, and scientific institutions on environmental activism around the world. The book highlights the diversity of national, regional and international environmental activism, showing that the term "environmentalism" covers an entire range of perceptions, values and interests. It demonstrates that each instance of environmental activism is shaped by historically unique circumstances, highlighting within each chapter the ideological, social, and political origins of efforts to protect the environment. Discussing issues unique to different parts of the world, Shades of Green shows that environmentalism around the globe has been strengthened, weakened, or suppressed by a variety of local, national, and international concerns, politics, and social realities.
Chapter 1. Modernity and Its Discontents: The Origins of Post-War Environmental Protest in the United States
Chapter 2. A "Democratic Movement of the People" Saves the Wutach Gorge: A Case Study in Early West German Environmental Activism, 1949-1960
Chapter 3. From "Land" to "Place": Communities and Conservation - The Magaliesberg, South Africa, and Cooper's Creek, Australia
Chapter 4. Environmental Activism in the Soviet Context: A Social Analysis
Chapter 5. Sprouts of Environmentalism in China? Government-Organized NGOs and Green Organizations in Disguise
Chapter 6. Forest Struggles and Forest Policy: Villagers' Environmental Activism in Mexico
Chapter 7. Placing Local Environmental Protest within Global Environmental Networks: Colonist Farmers and Sustainable Development in the Brazilian Amazon
Christof Mauch is the director of the German Historical Institute. Nathan Stoltzfus teaches history at Florida State University. Douglas R. Weiner is a professor of history at the University of Arizona and past president of the American Society for Environmental History.