First published 1720
Bill McKibben presents a comprehensive collection of American environmental writing spanning two hundred years. The anthology brings together influential works from Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Burroughs alongside Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. McKibben weaves these classic texts with newly discovered accounts of early conservation campaigns, excerpts from important legal decisions and environmental laws, and powerful protest speeches that shaped the movement. The collection features America's most passionate nature writers as they confront our planet's vulnerability and search for sustainable solutions. Essays examining overpopulation, consumer culture, and energy policy appear alongside ecologists' personal accounts and detailed portraits of threatened wildlife habitats. McKibben includes a comprehensive timeline of environmental activism and American ecological history, plus an extensive color illustration section. This anthology captures how a growing movement of writers and activists recognized the urgent need for environmental protection.
Genres: nature, 20th-century, american, environment, 21st-century, environmental-science, activism, american-history
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: activism, environmental-protection, nature-writing
Setting: America
Period: 19th Century, 20th Century, 21st Century
1078 pages · Hardcover · Library of America