Description
Book Synopsis* This major new book is the first global history of environmentalism, from its origins in the late 18th century to the global environmental movements of today. * The book is very clear and accessible, and is richly illustrated with examples from around the world.
Trade Review"Radkau's new book is by far the finest informative read available on the environmental movement in its many diverse varieties from its modern beginnings until now, and the women and men whose passions inspired it. Protests and politics, activism and reaction, love of nature and hatred of pollution – all are shown with a clarity that makes sense to the reader. This is the compelling global story of the most distinctive popular movement of our age, the Age of Ecology."
J. Donald Hughes, University of Denver "With his customary synoptic vision and idiosyncratic eye for telling detail, Radkau offers a revealing tableau of the multiple histories of modern environmentalism in Europe, in America, and around the world.
The Age of Ecology is the most thought-provoking and wide-ranging book yet on its subject."
J. R. McNeill, Georgetown University "A comprehensive and compelling global history of environmental movements.'
Die Zeit "An authoritative global history of ecology."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung "Brilliant - by far the best account of the global environmental movement ... A great achievement."
Deutschlandradio KulturTable of ContentsPreface to the English Edition vii
Acknowledgements xiv
Introduction: The Green Chameleon 1
One Environmentalism before the Environmental Movement 11
1 Good Mother Nature and the ‘Appalling Wood Shortage’: The Twin Face of Nature in the Decline of the Commons 11
2 Nature in Need of Protection and Nature as Healing Power: Environmental Activism in the ‘Nervous Age’ 24
3 ‘The Desert Threatens’: Environmental Fears in the Age of Crisis – the New Deal and Nazi Germany 46
4 Think Big! A Charismatic Intermezzo on the Olympian Heights 61
Two The Great Chain Reaction: The ‘Ecological Revolution’ in and around 1970 79
Three Networked Thinking and Practical Priorities: An Endless Interplay 114
1 On the Ecology of Ecologism 121
2 Water and the Atom 137
3 Changing Priorities: The Movement in Motion 162
Four Charismatics and Ecocrats 182
1 Spiritual Quest and Charismatic Moments 182
2 Ten Heroines Embodying Tensions in the Movement 201
3 Institutionalization, Routinization, Revitalization 237
Five A Friend–Enemy or Win-Win Scenario? 259
1 From Nuclear Power to the Spotted Owl 259
2 Violence and the Green Conscience 288
3 Ecology and Economics: The Challenge of Conceptual Analogy 320
Six Ecology and the Historic Turn of 1990: From Social Justice to Climate Justice? 339
Conclusion: The Dialectic of Green Enlightenment 425
Notes 432
Index 517
