Bibliography for Reconciliation and the Environment
Reconciliation Year Symposium Bibliography
Peggy Barlett, January 2001
The human relationship with the environment
As we emerged from the Industrial Revolution, and later from World War
II, many considered nature to be just one more enemy to be vanquished.
These two post-war books marked the way to a different relationship, one
that appreciated ecological balance and was mindful of the potential for
human damage.
Aldo Leopold, 1949. A Sand County Almanac. NY: Ballantine.
(One of the most eloquent of the environmental leaders, Leopold writes
of his Wisconsin locale in ways that open our eyes to our own places.)
Carson, Rachel, 1962. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
(A classic that helped launch the modern environmental movement, written
in a gentle, wise style.)
The environmental movement
Environmentalism as a movement in the United States arose with early
conservationists and has evolved through several "waves." These books
provide an overview of that history, and a context for understanding modern
environmentalism.
Shabecoff, Philip, 1993. A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental
Movement. New York: Hill and Wang. (A complete, readable history
by the former New York Times environmental reporter, ranging from early
European settlement to the environmental justice movement.)
Dowie, Mark, 1995. Losing Ground: American Environmentalism at
the Close of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1995.
(A more radical perspective, arguing that environmental justice offers
the only hope for lasting impact for the environmental movement.) .
Robert D. Bullard, 2000. Dumping in Dixie : Race, Class, and Environmental
Quality. Boulder: Westview Press. (Explains the history of why
the environmental movement failed to resonate with disadvantaged groups
until the 1990s.)
Reconciling wilderness and progress
Wilderness has always had a special place in the American world view.
These two books trace the history of the wilderness concept, from native
American times to the present.
Roderick Nash, 1982. Wilderness and the American Mind.
Third Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press. (Originally published
in 1967, this is the classic study of America's changing attitudes toward
wilderness.)
Bill McKibben, 1989. The End of Nature. New York: Random
House. (This highly influential book argues that human interventions,
especially those leading to global climate change, have fundamentally
changed the idea of nature, with profound implications.)
Reconciling business and environmentalism
Some in the environmental community revile business. These recent works
argue not only that business is the most potent force for change, including
sustainability, but that it makes business sense to move in that direction.
Paul Hawken, 1993. The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability.
New York: HarperBusiness. (A ground-breaking manifesto, making the moral
and economic case for environmental sustainability as a basis for business.)
Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, 1999. Natural Capitalism:
Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Boston: Little Brown.
(A follow-up to The Ecology of Commerce, this book provides numerous examples
of technologies that are both practical and sustainable.)
Reconciling environmentalism and spirituality:
Many writers feel that environmentalism has a deeply spiritual dimension.
These two books, using different disciplinary approaches, explore that
link.
Fritz Hull, ed. 1993. Earth and Spirit: The Spiritual Dimension
of the Environmental Crisis. NY: Continuum. (A powerful and moving
collection of essays)
David Abram, 1996.The Spell of the Sensuous. NY: Random
House. (An anthropological and philosophical treatise on the varieties
of human relationship to the natural environment)
Environmental education
Civics classes have traditionally been a part of public education, since
an understanding of government is considered essential to citizenship.
Similarly, an understanding of environmental issues is essential to local,
national, and global citizenship. These two books explore the challenges
of education for environmental awareness.
David Orr, 1992. Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition
to a Postmodern World. Albany: State University of NY Press. (Oberlin
College leader's introduction to the issues of sustainability and pedagogy)
---, 1994. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human
Prospect. Washington, D.C.: Island Press (Orr's most recent and
often-quoted essays on environmental issues and education)
Reconciling environmentalism and our daily lives
Duane Elgin, 1993. Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life that
is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich. Revised ed. NY: Morrow (A
good introduction to the simple living movement)
Michael Brower and Warren Leon, 1999. The Consumer's Guide to Effective
Environmental Choices: Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
NY: Random House. (Guidance based on massive scientific research as to
which consumer choices really matter)
Environmental practice and a sense of place
Much recent environmental writing has emphasized the sense of place,
the importance of putting down roots, learning about where we are, and
exercising stewardship.
Alan T. Durning, 1996. This Place on Earth: Home and the Practice
of Permanence. Seattle: Sasquatch Books. (Based in the northwest,
this book relates a personal journey to reconcile local science, regional
awareness, personal fulfillment, and environmental stewardship.)
Sarah Hammond Creighton, 1998. Greening the Ivory Tower: Improving
the Environmental Track Record of Universities, Colleges, and other Institutions.
Cambridge, MIT Press. (Overview of the pioneering work at Tufts University,
with a broad range of other examples, showing that universities are not
only places of learning, but also places in the ecological sense.)
Alice Outwater, 1996. Water: A Natural History. NY: Basic
Books. (A highly readable introduction to the natural history of North
America through the lens of water; evokes a new sense of the place we
inhabit.)
Urban, medical, and international dimensions of environmental challenge
Here in Atlanta, one of the most complex environmental problems we face
is urban sprawl. Emory's strengths in medical and international research
also draws our attention to these aspects of environmental reconciliation.
James Howard Kunstler, 1993. The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise
and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape. NY: Simon and Schuster.
(A spunky critique of our blighted urban landscape and the civic life
and aesthetics of America's suburbs)
---, 1998. Home from Nowhere: Remaking Our Everyday World for the
Twenty-first Century. Touchstone Books. (A constructive sequel
that offers a vision of how to overcome the many challenges of suburbanization
and return to a saner way of life.)
Kenneth T. Jackson, 1987. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization
of the United States. Oxford University Press. (A political and
economic history of suburbanization that outlines the forces that engineered
the sprawl we now face.)
Theo Colborn, ed. 1997. Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our
Fertility, Intelligence, and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story.
Plume Books. (A passionate exploration of the hypothesis that chemical
pollutants in the environment are disrupting human reproductive patterns
and causing such problems as birth defects, sexual abnormalities, and
reproductive failure.)
Shabecoff, Phillip, 1996. A New Name for Peace: International Environmentalism,
Sustainable Development, and Democracy. (Predicts that environmental
diplomacy will rise as one of the most important aspects of global politics,
world development, and trade.)
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