Description
Rome's genial new book . . . brings to life another era. --Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
The first Earth Day is the most famous little-known event in modern American history. Because we still pay ritual homage to the planet every April 22, everyone knows something about Earth Day. Some people may also know that Earth Day 1970 made the environmental movement a major force in American political life. But no one has told the whole story before.
The story of the first Earth Day is inspiring: it had a power, a freshness, and a seriousness of purpose that are difficult to imagine today. Earth Day 1970 created an entire green generation. Thousands of Earth Day organizers and participants decided to devote their lives to the environmental cause. Earth Day 1970 helped to build a lasting eco-infrastructure--lobbying organizations, environmental beats at newspapers, environmental-studies programs, ecology sections in bookstores, community ecology centers.
In The Genius of Earth Day, the prizewinning historian Adam Rome offers a compelling account of the rise of the environmental movement. Drawing on his experience as a journalist as well as his expertise as a scholar, he explains why the first Earth Day was so powerful, bringing one of the greatest political events of the twentieth century to life.
Author: Adam Rome
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Published: 07/08/2014
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9780865477742
ISBN10: 0865477744
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | 20th Century
- Nature | Environmental Conservation & Protection | General
- Political Science | Public Policy | Environmental Policy
About the Author
Adam Rome teaches environmental history and sustainability studies at the University at Buffalo. Before earning his PhD in history, he worked for seven years as a journalist. His first book, The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism, won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Lewis Mumford Prize.