The Truth of Ecology is a wide-ranging appraisal of contemporary environmental thought. It explores such topics as the history of ecology, radical science studies and radical ecology, the need for greater theoretical sophistication in ecocriticism, the dubious legacy of Thoreau, and the contradictions of current nature writing.
"Readers concerned that the community of nature writers and ecocritics has become too chummy and self-congratulatory...need look no further than Dana Phillips's witty and provocative new book for an astringent remedy.... Reading The Truth of Ecology...will make you stronger, better able to appreciate and evaluate the literature that explores our relationship with nature."--Orion
"The grand project of this text is to urge writers to question the gaps between experience and language, perception and description; these are worthwhile portals of inquiry for writers working in landscapes that seem to have a priori discrete identities."--Western American Literature
"The Truth of Ecology will help ecocriticism come of age. Dana Phillips is a tough, challenging, and unsentimental reader. Even those who disagree with him will agree that he adds two crucial elements to current discourse in the environmental humanities: a powerful philosophical armature and a genuinely sophisticate