A Fierce Green Fire

The American Environmental Movement

In A Fierce Green Fire, renowned environmental journalist Philip Shabecoff presents the definitive history of American environmentalism from the earliest days of the republic to the present. He offers a sweeping overview of the contemporary environmental movemand the political, economic, social, and ethical forces that have shaped it. More importantly, he considers what today's environmental movemneeds to do to fight off powerful oppositional forces and succeed in its mission of protecting the American people, their habitat, and their future.

Shabecoff traces the ecological transformation of North America as a result of the mass migration of Europeans to the New World, showing how the environmental impulse slowly formed among a growing number of Americans until, by the last third of the 20th Century, environmentalism emerged as a major social and cultural movement. He examines the efforts of key environmental figures -- among them Henry David Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, Aldo Leopold, and Rachel Carson -- as well as the activities of non-governmental environmental groups, governmagencies such as the EPA and Interior Department, and grassroots efforts by communities across America.

Originally published in 1993, this new edition brings the story up to date with an analysis of how the of George W. Bush administration sought to dismantle a half-century of progress in protecting the land and its people, and a consideration of the growing international effort to protect Earth's life-support systems and the obstacles the United States governmis placing before that effort.

Now, when environmental law, institutions, and values are under increased attack and opponents of environmentalism are enjoying overwhelming political and economic power A Fierce Green Fire is a vital reminder of how far we have come in protecting our environmand how much we have to lose.