The Genius of Earth Day: How a 1970 Teach-In Unexpectedly Made the First Green Generation - Hardcover

Rome, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0809040506 ISBN 13: 9780809040506

Publisher: Hill and Wang, 2013

Synopsis

The first Earth Day is the most famous little-known event in modern American history. Because we still pay ritual homage to the planet every April 22, everyone knows something about Earth Day. Some people may also know that Earth Day 1970 made the environmental movement a major force in American political life. But no one has told the whole story before.

The story of the first Earth Day is inspiring: it had a power, a freshness, and a seriousness of purpose that are difficult to imagine today. Earth Day 1970 created an entire green generation. Thousands of Earth Day organizers and participants decided to devote their lives to the environmental cause. Earth Day 1970 helped to build a lasting eco-infrastructure―lobbying organizations, environmental beats at newspapers, environmental-studies programs, ecology sections in bookstores, community ecology centers.

In The Genius of Earth Day, the prizewinning historian Adam Rome offers a compelling account of the rise of the environmental movement. Drawing on his experience as a journalist as well as his expertise as a scholar, he explains why the first Earth Day was so powerful, bringing one of the greatest political events of the twentieth century to life.

About this title

About the Author

Adam Rome teaches environmental history and environmental nonfiction at the University of Delaware. Before earning his Ph.D. in history, he worked for seven years as a journalist. His first book, The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism, won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Lewis Mumford Prize.

Reviews

Rome presents the first comprehensive study of how Earth Day came about, what transpired on April 22, 1970, and why the inaugural Earth Day became “a transformative event.” By combing through vast archives and interviewing organizers and participants, Rome recognized that the key to Earth Day’s phenomenal success and lasting influence was the fact that it was not born of a well-established movement. Sure, voices were being raised in support of wilderness and against pollution, and the counterculture was rejecting consumer culture and heading back to nature. But it took the vision of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin to bring it all together by proposing “a national environmental teach-in.” Rome tracks the evolution of Nelson’s “environmental ethic” and tireless efforts to mobilize people across the country to plan homegrown actions. Rome describes the frenzied and smart tactics of Earth Day organizers, the astonishing array of 13,000 events, and the pivotal roles women played and follows the world-altering ripple effects. Let’s hope Rome’s excellent and invaluable Earth Day history helps rev up the grassroots engine for positive change once again. --Donna Seaman

Edition details

• Publisher: Hill and Wang
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809040506
• ISBN 13: 9780809040506
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368