In an age of climate crisis and political confusion, ecology seems to offer clear answers to urgent questions about the current global predicament. Yet ecology has always been politically ambivalent. Environmental ideals appeal to radicals and reactionaries alike; ecological concerns can align with both the left and the right, including the extreme right.
In Ecology Contested, Peter Staudenmaier examines the complex and conflicting politics of environmentalism with a critical eye, offering challenging perspectives on the historical, philosophical, and political dimensions of ecological engagement in a troubled world.
Peter Staudenmaier is an Associate Professor of History at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a faculty member of the Institute for Social Ecology. He is the author of
Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era (Leiden: Brill, 2014), and co-author of
Ecofascism Revisited: Lessons from the German Experience (New Compass Press, 2011)