New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed presidential
historian Douglas Brinkley chronicles the rise of environmental activism
during the Long Sixties (1960-1973), telling the story of an indomitable
generation that saved the natural world under the leadership of John F.
Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
With the detonation of the Trinity explosion in the New Mexico desert in
1945, the United States took control of Earth's destiny for the first
time. After the Truman administration dropped atomic bombs on Japan to
end World War II, a grim new epoch had arrived. During the early Cold
War years, the federal government routinely detonated nuclear devices in
the Nevada desert and the Marshall Islands. Not only was nuclear fallout
a public health menace, but entire ecosystems were contaminated with
radioactive materials. During the 1950s, an unprecedented postwar
economic boom took hold, with America becoming the world's leading
hyperindustrial and military giant. But with this historic prosperity
came a heavy cost: oceans began to die, wilderness vanished, the
insecticide DDT poisoned ecosystems, wildlife perished, and chronic smog
blighted major cities.
In **** Silent Spring Revolution, Douglas Brinkley pays tribute to
those who combated the mauling of the natural world in the Long Sixties:
Rachel Carson (a marine biologist and author), David Brower (director of
the Sierra Club), Barry Commoner (an environmental justice advocate),
Coretta Scott King (an antinuclear activist), Stewart Udall (the
secretary of the interior), William O. Douglas (Supreme Court justice),
Cesar Chavez (a labor organizer), and other crusaders are profiled with
verve and insight.
Carson's book Silent Spring, published in 1962, depicted how
detrimental DDT was to living creatures. The exposé launched an
ecological revolution that inspired such landmark legislation as the
Wilderness Act (1964), the Clean Air Acts (1963 and 1970), and the
Endangered Species Acts (1966, 1969, and 1973). In intimate detail,
Brinkley extrapolates on such epic events as the Donora (Pennsylvania)
smog incident, JFK's Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Great Lakes
preservation, the Santa Barbara oil spill, and the first Earth Day.
With the United States grappling with climate change and resource
exhaustion, Douglas Brinkley's meticulously researched and deftly
written Silent Spring Revolution reminds us that a new generation of
twenty-first-century environmentalists can save the planet from ruin.
Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
