As recently as fifty years ago, the billowing industrial smokestack was a proud symbol of progress and power; today it is an image of unbridled corporate irresponsibility. This change in public attitudes reflects a shift in social values as rapid and profound as any in American history. Its effects are so far-reaching that scarcely anyone imagines there was ever an alternative view of the relationship between human beings and nature. Yet for all the time and energy devoted to discussion of environmentalism as a social and political movement, no one has questioned its existence as a coherent philosophy or given an account of how it first emerged in public consciousness. Most people would assume that the environmental idea, and the powerful political movement it inspired, must have emerged in response to self evident environmental problems such as air and water pollution, acid rain, the human destruction of natural habitats, and the resulting extinction of endangered species. But Charles T. Rubin argues that environmental problems are far from being a matter of common sense. He points out that while such situations almost certainly existed in the past, they were defined in different terms-implying different kinds of social and political solutions. Rubin tells the story of this massive yet strangely unnoticed transformation of public perception and social morality by focusing on the small group of influential writers and thinkers-Rachel Carson, Barry Commoner, Paul Ehrlich, E. F. Schumacher, and others -whose enormously popular writings gave birth to the environmental movement as we know it.

About the Author
Charles T. Rubin teaches political science at Duquesne University. He resides in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Reviews
Rubin's argument that many environmentalists have failed to recognize the utopian and totalitarian character of their principles is engrossing and provocative. * Publishers Weekly *
Searching and provocative. * The New York Review Of Books *
Serious discussion of environmentalism is now impossible without reference to The Green Crusade. Rubin's groundbreaking book signals a new stage in the environmental debate. This is no anti-green polemic. Neither side of the debate is spared. But Rubin does pose the most serious intellectual challenge to environmentalists by demonstrating that they would do well to drop their tiresome warnings of impending disaster and instead reexamine their own principles. This book is the place for them to start. -- Jefferey Salmon, Executive Director, George C. Marshall Institute
This most welcome and reasonable book comes at a time when the environmental movement, which should be evolving with the firm guidance of science, increasingly reflects the ideas and activities of utopians who desire to uproot our existing civilization and redesign our whole society in the process. -- Frederick Seitz, Rockefeller University, past president of the National Academy of Sciences
This thoughtful and thought-provoking book provides another lesson on the unintended consequences of noble intentions. -- Richard S. Lindzen, Sloan Professor, Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The book's contribution is to look in some detail at some of the campaigners who have been instrumental in making that transition occur and examining the implications and effects of their message and their methods. * Talking Politics *



Book Information
ISBN 9780847688173
Author Charles T. Rubin
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 431g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 151mm * 18mm