Environmentalists have often blamed Protestantism for justifying the human exploitation of nature, but the author of this cultural history argues that, in America, hard-boiled industrialists and passionate environmentalists sprang from the same Protestant root. Protestant Christianity Calvinism especially both helped industrialists like James J Hill rationalise their utilisation of nature for economic profit and led environmental advocates like John Muir to call for the preservation of unspoiled wilderness. Biographical vignettes examine American thinkers, industrialists, and environmentalists Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Smith, William Gilpin, Leland Stanford, Gifford Pinchot, Aldo Leopold, and others whose lives show the development of ideas and attitudes that have profoundly shaped Americans' use of and respect for nature. The final chapter looks at several contemporary figures James Watt, Annie Dillard, and Dave Foreman whose careers exemplify the recent Protestant thought and behaviour and their impact on the environment.
- ISBN10 0585214875
- ISBN13 9780585214870
- Publish Date December 1997 (first published 1 April 1997)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of New Mexico Press
- Format eBook
- Language English