Customer Reviews

Age of Environmentalism

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When I wrote "The Age of Environmentalism," I intended the book to provide a brief history of the modern environmental movement. Specifically, I focused on the period 1962 to 1973, the early, formative years of the movement. I have researched and written about Rachel Carson, Paul Ehrlich, Barry Commoner, Garrett Hardin, the Deep Ecology Movement and many other people/events that were important to modern environmentalism. The book attempts to tell "both sides" of the several stories. That is, I attempt to provide a critical review of each person's contribution to environmentalism. We've included lots of photographs as well. The book has been favorably reviewed by the Ecological Society of America and by the National Asociation of Environmental Professionals as an "even-handed" treatment of the modern environmental movement. Many professors have adopted the book for their classes. It enjoys trade book sales as well. I've received some wonderful letters from readers around the world. Read & enjoy! And please let me hear your comments.

I adopted this book as a supplementary text for my Introduction to Environmental Studies course. Most texts written for intro ES courses focus on the origins and status of environmental problems that we now face, but they do not typically do a very good job of telling students where fundamental ideas about the environment came from.

This book provides an accessible, understandable summary of many of the bedrock concepts and philosophies that the modern American environmental movement is based on. The author has gone back to landmark papers and books that have moved us in the direction we are now headed.

This book will introduce you to the ideas of people like Robert Thomas Malthus, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Garrett Hardin, Arne Naesse, and other major contributors to environmental philosophy and the development of modern environmental consciousness.

If you are looking for a good primer on the history and development of environmental consciousness, then this is the book for you. And the author does it all in less than 200 pp.

The only downside I can see to this book is that it's kind of pricy for a relatively slim paperback.

Still, I give this book 5 stars for general coverage and retaining its focus.

Alan Holyoak, Director of Environmetal Studies, Manchester College, IN