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Silent spring revolution : John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the great environmental awakening / Douglas Brinkley.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2022]Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First editionDescription: xxx, 857 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780063212916
  • 0063212919
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Protoenvironmentalists (1945-1959). The ebb and flow of John F. Kennedy -- Harry Truman: polluted and radiated America -- Rachel Carson and the shore of the sea -- William O. Douglas and the protoenvironmentalists -- Wilderness politics, Dinosaur National Monument, and the Nature Conservancy -- Saving shorelines -- Protesting plastics, nuclear testing, and DDT -- John F. Kennedy's new frontier (1961-1963). Forging the new frontier: Stewart Udall and Lyndon Johnson -- Wallace Stegner's "Wilderness letter" -- The green face of America -- Rachel Carson, the Laurence Rockefeller Report, and Kennedy's science curve -- The White House Conservation Conference (May 24-25, 1962) -- Rachel Carson's alarm -- Point Reyes (California) and Padre Island (Texas) National Seashores -- Campaigns to save the Hudson River and Bodega Bay -- The tag team of John F. Kennedy, Stewart Udall, and Rachel Carson -- The limited nuclear test ban treaty -- The environmentalism of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon (1964-1973). JFK's last conservation journey -- The Mississippi fish kill, the Clean Air Act, and American beautification -- The Great Society: Rachel Carson and Howard Zahniser's legacies -- The Wilderness Act of 1964 -- Ending the bulldozing of America -- America's natural heritage: Cape Lookout, Big Bend, the Grand Canyon -- Defenders: historical preservation, endangered species, and bedroll scientists -- "Sue the bastards!" and environmental justice -- The unraveling of America, 1968 -- Lyndon Johnson: champion of wild rivers and national scenic trails (October 2, 1968) -- Taking stock of new conservation wins -- Santa Barbara, the Cuyahoga River, and the National Environmental Policy Act -- Generation Earth Day, 1970-1971 -- Nixon's environmental activism of 1972: the Great Lakes protection, the DDT ban, and the Stockholm Conference -- Epilogue: Last leaves on the tree.
Summary: "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"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library NonFiction 333.7209 B858 Available 33111011017460
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 333.7209 B858 Available 33111010919468
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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.

Silent Spring Revolution features two 8-page color photo inserts.

"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"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 807-819) and index.

Protoenvironmentalists (1945-1959). The ebb and flow of John F. Kennedy -- Harry Truman: polluted and radiated America -- Rachel Carson and the shore of the sea -- William O. Douglas and the protoenvironmentalists -- Wilderness politics, Dinosaur National Monument, and the Nature Conservancy -- Saving shorelines -- Protesting plastics, nuclear testing, and DDT -- John F. Kennedy's new frontier (1961-1963). Forging the new frontier: Stewart Udall and Lyndon Johnson -- Wallace Stegner's "Wilderness letter" -- The green face of America -- Rachel Carson, the Laurence Rockefeller Report, and Kennedy's science curve -- The White House Conservation Conference (May 24-25, 1962) -- Rachel Carson's alarm -- Point Reyes (California) and Padre Island (Texas) National Seashores -- Campaigns to save the Hudson River and Bodega Bay -- The tag team of John F. Kennedy, Stewart Udall, and Rachel Carson -- The limited nuclear test ban treaty -- The environmentalism of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon (1964-1973). JFK's last conservation journey -- The Mississippi fish kill, the Clean Air Act, and American beautification -- The Great Society: Rachel Carson and Howard Zahniser's legacies -- The Wilderness Act of 1964 -- Ending the bulldozing of America -- America's natural heritage: Cape Lookout, Big Bend, the Grand Canyon -- Defenders: historical preservation, endangered species, and bedroll scientists -- "Sue the bastards!" and environmental justice -- The unraveling of America, 1968 -- Lyndon Johnson: champion of wild rivers and national scenic trails (October 2, 1968) -- Taking stock of new conservation wins -- Santa Barbara, the Cuyahoga River, and the National Environmental Policy Act -- Generation Earth Day, 1970-1971 -- Nixon's environmental activism of 1972: the Great Lakes protection, the DDT ban, and the Stockholm Conference -- Epilogue: Last leaves on the tree.

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