American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau (Library of America) [Hardcover]

Bill McKibben (Editor), Al Gore (Foreword)

Book Description

Release date: April 17, 2008 | Series: Library of America (Book 182)

As America and the world grapple with the consequences of global environmental change, writer and activist Bill McKibben offers this unprecedented, provocative, and timely anthology, gathering the best and most significant American environmental writing from the last two centuries.

Classics of the environmental imagination?the essays of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Burroughs; Aldo Leopold?s A Sand County Almanac; Rachel Carson?s Silent Spring?are set against the inspiring story of an emerging activist movement, as revealed by newly uncovered reports of pioneering campaigns for conservation, passages from landmark legal opinions and legislation, and searing protest speeches. Here are some of America?s greatest and most impassioned writers, taking a turn toward nature and recognizing the fragility of our situation on earth and the urgency of the search for a sustainable way of life. Thought-provoking essays on overpopulation, consumerism, energy policy, and the nature of ?nature? join ecologists? memoirs and intimate sketches of the habitats of endangered species. The anthology includes a detailed chronology of the environmental movement and American environmental history, as well as an 80-page color portfolio of illustrations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In his introduction to this superb anthology, McKibben (The End of Nature) proposes that "environmental writing is America's most distinctive contribution to the world's literature." The collected pieces amply prove the point. Arranged chronologically, McKibben's selection of more than 100 writers includes some of the great early conservationists, such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and John Burroughs, and many other eloquent nature writers, including Donald Cultross Peattie, Edwin Way Teale and Henry Beston. The early exponents of national parks and wilderness areas have their say, as do writers who have borne witness to environmental degradation-John Steinbeck and Caroline Henderson on the dust bowl, for example, and Berton Roueché and others who have reported on the effects of toxic pollution. Visionaries like Buckminster Fuller and Amory Lovins are represented, as are a wealth of contemporary activist/writers, among them Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan, Paul Hawken, and Calvin deWitt, cofounder of the Evangelical Environmental Network. McKibben's trenchant introductions to the pieces sum up each writer's thoughts and form a running commentary on the progress of the conservation movement. The book, being published on Earth Day, can be read as a survey of the literature of American environmentalism, but above all, it should be enjoyed for the sheer beauty of the writing. 80-page color illus, not seen by PW. (Apr. 22 [Earth Day])
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—There have been some excellent collections of nature writing published in recent years (The Norton Anthology of Nature Writing is one fine example), but not until now has there been a definitive anthology of American environmental writing. In this superbly edited volume, McKibben draws a clear distinction between the two. The best of the latter often celebrates nature, but also asks searching questions about the impact of human life on the planet. After a poignant foreword by Al Gore, as well as his own illuminating introduction, McKibben begins with the work of a writer, thinker, and activist ahead of his time, Henry David Thoreau, and ends the volume with Rebecca Solnit's essay, "The Thoreau Problem." She notes that many people think of Thoreau only as a man alone observing nature, but the author of "Civil Disobedience," before enjoying his day of huckleberry picking, spent a night in jail rather than pay taxes to a government guilty of ignoring the higher laws of nature. This vast and varied collection, arranged chronologically, includes many seminal names, such as John Muir, Rachel Carson, and Wendell Berry, and some that are less well known or unexpected, like Benton MacKaye, Caroline Henderson, P. T. Barnum, and Philip K. Dick. Most of the selections derive from longer prose works, but there is also a smattering of poems, song lyrics, and cartoons. Although the heft of the volume might scare away some teens, others may realize that they could easily read bits and pieces, and that they would benefit greatly by any amount of time spent in these pages. Numerous photographs, many in full color, are included.—Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 900 pages
• Publisher: Library of America (April 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598530208
• ISBN-13: 978-1598530209
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,726 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Surveying the environmental literary landscape November 19, 2008

By Chuck Warnock

Format:Hardcover

"In wildness is the preservation of the world," wrote Henry David Thoreau in his groundbreaking book, Walden. With Thoreau as a starting point, Bill McKibben has assembled the finest, most comprehensive anthology of American environmental writing one could hope to find. The combined work of 101 authors, running almost 1,000 pages, American Earth chronicles the changing landscape of environmentalism from Thoreau to Teddy Roosevelt to Al Gore, with 98 more thrown in for good measure.

This one volume provides a rich orientation to the world of environmental writing which McKibben contends is "America's single most distinctive contribution to the world's literature." If Walden is the book everyone claims to revere but few have actually read, American Earth offers an accessible door into not only Walden, but 100 more works of significance in the annals of environmentalism. McKibben, himself the groundbreaking author of The End of Nature, the first account of global warming's consequences, selects each author with the care of a conductor assembling a fine orchestra. Some voices speak of spiritual bonds connecting humankind and nature, others tell true stories of real ecological tragedies, and some are historical markers along the environmental movement's journey from the fringes into mainstream America.

McKibben calls upon Thoreau to set the stage for this anthology -- "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover I had not lived." He continues with the likes of Walt Whitman, P. T. Barnum (raging against billboards), and features the classic writing of John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club.

His list of contributors ranges from the designer of Central Park in NYC (Frederick Law Olmsted), to an American author and journalist (Theodore Dreiser), to another writer of the depression (John Steinbeck). Books you may have read are excerpted, such as Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities; and, Rachel Carson's, Silent Spring, the classic that influenced Al Gore and resulted in a ban on DDT.

You may not agree with all the pieces included. Lynn White's essay, "The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis" lays the blame (in 1967) for the environmental problems of the US on the Christian worldview. Or, at least the popular Christian worldview that saw the world as man's plaything, to use or use up as he chose. White concludes his essay with the life of St. Francis of Assisi, and nominates Francis as patron saint of environmentalists because of Francis' teaching on humility and his love for all of God's creation. The activist Cesar Chavez is also included, but on the lighter side is Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land," which was set to the tune of an old Baptist hymn, When The World's on Fire -- more appropriate than even Guthrie might have thought when he chose it.

If you want to get up to speed in Environmentalism 101, McKibben's American Earth is the book you need. A comprehensive survey of literature on environmentalism, the book contains scores of great quotes, real life stories, like The Fog by Berton Roueche', and contemporary voices like Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver. My newly discovered friend, Wendell Berry, is included, as are all of the other great names in the movement -- the Nearings, Buckminster Fuller, Scott Russell Sanders, Al Gore, and Paul Hawken, plus many more.

I have several of the books referenced by McKibben, including his Deep Economy, and a comparable library would run hundreds of dollars. You'll find yourself doing what I have done -- pulling out American Earth to read another essay or chapter or poem in America's great chronicle of all things environmental.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection of Nature writings: June 18, 2008

By M. Taylor

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

With over a hundred authors contributing and Al Gore's blessing, you cannot ask for a better collection of writings from some of the best minds around. After you get a taste, it will inspire you to seek out the full editions of the books. The Library of America series has always selected top notch authors and works; they also print the books on wonderful paper with sturdy bindings. The editor- Bill McKibben was able to give a brief summary of the authors works and life that contributed, which helps put the works into perspective.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended to environmental studies collections focusing on college level discussion June 8, 2008

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Hardcover

Environmental concerns are not a strictly recent development - it has been heavily discussed ever since the writings of Henry David Thoreau. "American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau" is a complete and comprehensive collection of writing covering scholarly essays and writings throughout history addressing the concerns of America, and how America should manage its relationship with the planet it sits on. Enhanced with a foreword from former Vice President and avid Environmentalist Al Gore, "American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau" is highly recommended to environmental studies collections focusing on college level discussion.