Forcing the Spring: The Transformation Of The American Environmental Movement - Hardcover

Gottlieb, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1559631236 ISBN 13: 9781559631235

Publisher: Island Press, 1993

Synopsis

Forcing the Spring challenges standard histories of the environmental movement by offering a broad and inclusive interpretation of past environmentalist thought and a sweeping redefinition of the nature of the contemporary environmental movement. Robert Gottlieb demonstrates the centrality of environmental concerns to a wide range of social movements of the past century as he explores the connections between pressures on human and natural environments and the role of these pressures in shaping society. His analysis provides fundamental new insights into the past and future of the American environmental movement by placing it within the larger context of American social history.After considering the historical roots of environmentalism from the 1890s through the 1960s, Gottlieb discusses the rise and consolidation of environmental groups in the years between Earth Day 1970 and Earth Day 1990. He examines the increasing professionalization of the major environmental organizations and the parallel rise of community-based groups over the past decade, and ends with an in-depth consideration of the role of ethnicity, gender, and class in the formation and definition of movements.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Gottlieb is the author of several books on environmental and resource policy. Gottlieb is a long-time environmental and social justice activist whose writings have appeared in numerous New Left and environmental journals as well as The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Unomasuno.

Reviews

Recently, the environmental movement has been seen as elitist--traditionally dominated by white males with its primary goal being the preservation of wilderness rather than the promoting of responsible stewardship of the planet and its resources. Gottlieb ( Empires in the Sun ) expands the definition of environmentalism to include more sociological issues that affect daily life in the community and the workplace. He discusses gender, ethnicity and class as factors in environmental problems, examines alternative movements and grassroots action, such as the protests about Love Canal. Gottlieb introduces Alice Hamilton, pioneer in occupational and community health, as an equal of John Muir. Moving from arguments about protecting the natural environment to a discussion of social justice, he notes that many diverse groups share a common goal in their search for a response to the dominant urban and industrial order. A timely and provocative study.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

An earnest dissertation on environmentalism as a complex social movement that began in response to industrialization, urbanization, and the closing of the frontier. Gottlieb (A Life of Its Own, 1988, etc.), an environmental activist and lecturer at UCLA's Urban Planning Program, rejects as too narrow the view of the environmental movement as one rooted in the struggle to preserve nature. This view, he claims, overlooks environmentalism's urban and industrial ancestry: the social-reform movements of the 19th century that sought to improve the daily lives of working people. Gottlieb diligently traces the history of this more broadly defined environmentalism from the 1890's on. He selects Earth Day 1970 as a transitional event, marking the emergence of a new mainstream environmentalism as a powerful force in shaping policy at the federal level, and he scrutinizes the conflict between this professional, institutionalized environmentalism and alternative, community- based, direct-action groups. Unlike mainstream environmentalists, whom Gottlieb describes as working closely with government and industry, alternative groups are more confrontational, and the issues they tackle are often ones in which gender, race, and class play significant roles--e.g., exposure to hazardous substances in the workplace, with its disproportionately greater impact on blue-collar workers. The picture that emerges is one in which mainstream environmentalism has lost its way, with new direction coming from the alternative groups, the true descendants of 19th-century champions of social justice. By recognizing its social-reform roots and by redefining itself in broad terms, Gottlieb asserts that environmentalism can transform itself into a more democratic movement, one concerned with the total human environment. Impressive research and a clear message--if somewhat tedious in the telling. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This book will considerably expand most readers' knowledge of environmentalism as experienced in the past and present in the United States. Gottlieb, a teacher in UCLA's Urban Planning Program and author of several other books on the environment, offers a broad interpretation, beginning with a history of the environmental movement in this country from the 1890s forward, then examining contemporary environmental groups of the past 20 years. Mainstream groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society, and Sierra Club are discussed, as are Greenpeace and various grass-roots organizations that are often considered alternative movements. Finally, individual chapters are devoted to gender, ethnicity, and class as they relate to environmentalism. This heavily documented but quite readable work is a good choice for academic libraries and for public libraries with collections on the environment.
- William H. Wiese, Iowa State Univ. Libs., Ames
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Island Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559631236
• ISBN 13: 9781559631235
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 423