A recent history replete with compromise and capitulation has pushed aonce promising and effective political movement to the brink of irrelevance.Sostates Mark Dowie in this provocative critique of the mainstream Americanenvironmental movement. Dowie, the prolific award-winning journalist who broke thestories on the Dalkon Shield and on the Ford Pinto, delivers an insightful, informative, and often damning account of the movement many historians and socialcommentators at one time expected to be this century's most significant. He unveilsthe inside stories behind American environmentalism's undeniable triumphs and itsquite unnecessary failures.Dowie weaves a spellbinding tale, from the movement'sconservationist origins as a handful of rich white men's hunting and fishing clubs, through its evolution in the 1960s and 1970s into a powerful political force thatforged landmark environmental legislation, enforced with aggressive litigation, tothe strategy of "third wave" political accommodation during the Reagan and Bushyears that led to the evisceration of many earlier triumphs, up to today, where thefirst stirrings of a rejuvenated, angry, multicultural, and decidedly impolitemovement for environmental justice provides new hope for the future.Dowie takes afresh look at the formation of the American environmental imagination and examinesits historical imperatives: the inspirations of Thoreau, the initiatives of JohnMuir and Bob Marshall, the enormous impact of Rachel Carson, the new ground brokenby Earth Day in 1970, and the societal antagonists created in response that climaxedwith the election of Ronald Reagan. He details the subsequent move toward polite, ineffectual activism by the mainstream environmental groups, characterized bysuccessful fundraising efforts and wide public acceptance, and also by new allianceswith corporate philanthropists and government bureaucrats, increased degradation ofenvironmental quality, and alienation of grassroots support. Dowie concludes with aninspirational description of a noncompromising "fourth wave" of Americanenvironmentalism, which he predicts will crest early in the next century.

This book is on these lists:

• January 2012 Indie Next List
• December 2011 Indie Next List
• November 2011 Indie Next List