Carson's Silent Spring: A Reader's Guide

Description

Silent Spring is a watershed moment in the history of environmentalism, credited with launching the modern environmental movement. In synthesizing a jumble of scientific and medical information into a coherent argument, Carson successfully challenged major chemical industries and the idea that modern societies could and should exert mastery over nature at any cost. Her critique remains salient today. This book provides the first in-depth analysis, contextualisation and overview of Silent Spring, a critical work in the history of environmentalism, surveying its lasting impact on the environmentalist movement in the last fifty years.

Joni Seager is Professor and Chair of Global Studies at Bentley University, Boston, USA. She is a feminist geographer and environmentalist.

29 years ago the Bhopal tragedy...showed how right Rachel Carson was. Now the 'elixirs of death' come in new forms... Joni Seager's [book] is a vital and timely reminder of Rachel Carson's wake up call to humanity that a chemical war can never be won. * Dr Vandana Shiva, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize (the Right Livelihood Award) 1993 * Pacy, thought-provoking and challenging...This will become a set text for environmentalists and students of the natural world, but I'd urge that anyone interested in understanding the importance of Carson's life and vital insight, and its relevance to the world 50 years on, should read Joni Seager's book. -- Conor Mark Jameson, author and naturalist Silent Spring was a blockbuster that changed the world. Today, Carson's message has been politicized, misinterpreted and ignored. Joni Seager brilliantly explicates the times in which Carson wrote and shows why Silent Spring remains an essential text for the 21st century. -- Dr. Linda Lear, historian and biographer of Rachel Carson