Green ideas, green Vietnam: Environmentalism in the sixties

摘要

The ideas that underpin the environmental movement formed during the Vietnam era. Because of the popularity of Silent Spring in 1962, scholars recognize Rachel Carson as the founder of environmnetalism. In order to substantiate this claim, and to examine the formative period of environmentalism, I have analyzed a wide variety of sources in the U.S. from 1962 to 1970. In particular, I follow their legacies by examining discussions of pesticides, defoliation, Agent Orange, and related technological aspects of the Vietnam War.;"Two Visions" examines the politics of science during the fifties as a basis for understanding the changes that took place in the sixties. "Divergent Environmentalisms" examines the texts of Rachel Carson and Murray Bookchin (Our Synthetic Environment) for their political and intellectual heritage. "Defoliation in the Mainstream" analyzes eight years of environmental, war and scientific reporting in the New York Times. "Radical Visions" takes up the constructions of enviromnentalism found in the alternative press. "Verbal Napalm" dissects anti-war poetry for its environmental and political tendencies. In each chapter I hope to explain, elaborate on, or even note the absence of Rachel Carson's, and Murray Bookchin's, environmental ideas.