Although often linked to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), and Sixties era social movement, environmentalism arose in response to anxieties and tensions over the fate of the planet that first came to light with the atomic bomb blasts and the end of the Second World War that moved some thinkers to ponder other ways that humans might be endangering the planet. Their focus turned to the growing power of big business. More than ever, powerful corporations
and a federal government bent on economic growth were seen by many Americans as threats to human health and the environment. Fallout from atomic testing, air and water pollution, the proliferation of pesticides and herbicides-all connected to the growing dominance of technology and corporate capitalism in
American life-led a variety of constituencies to seek solutions in what came to be known as environmentalism.
In addition to the usual political and legal maneuvers employed to effect change, an alternative form of civic participation emerged beginning in the late-1940s as growing numbers of citizens turned to what they deemed environmentally friendly consumption practices. The goal of this politically charged consumption was not only to protect themselves and their families from harm, but to achieve social change at a time when many Americans believed the polity was increasingly out of balance, with
government placing the desires of business before the needs of its citizens. Politicians responded to the growing environmental concerns of middle class Americans, but, in the end, continual political compromises with corporate power meant weak laws and lax enforcement. Many citizens sought refuge in
an alternative "green" marketplace-an attempt to find a space within an imagined community of others who shared their concerns and frustrations, as well as their vision for a different American Way.
- ISBN10 0199791201
- ISBN13 9780199791200
- Publish Date 5 June 2014 (first published 9 April 2014)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 320
- Language English