The Age of Ecology

This book is the first major study of the history of environmentalism, from its origins in romanticism and the nature cults of the late 18th century to the global environmental movements of today. 

Radkau shows that this is not a single story of the steady ascent of environmentalism but rather a multiplicity of stories, each with its own dramatic tension: between single-issue movements and the challenges posed by the interconnection of environmental issues, between charismatic leaders and bureaucratic organizations, and between grassroot movements and global players. While the history can be traced back several centuries, environmentalism has flourished since the ‘environmental revolution’ of 1970, spurred on by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 and the growing concern about global warming. While environmentalists often opposed the scientific mainstream, they were also often led by scientific knowledge. Environmentalism is the true Enlightenment of our time Ð so much so that we can call our era ‘the age of ecology’.

This timely and comprehensive global history of environmentalism will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the most pressing global issues of our time.

Contents
Preface to the English Edition

Introduction: The Green Chameleon

Chapter One: Environmentalism before the Environmental Movement
1. Good Mother Nature and the ‘Appalling Wood Shortage’: The Twin Face of Nature in the Decline of the Commons
2. Nature in Need of Protection and Nature as Healing Power: Environmental Activism in the ‘Nervous Age’
3. ‘The Desert Threatens’: Environmental Fears in the Age of Crisis - the New Deal and Nazi Germany
4. Think Big! A Charismatic Intermezzo on the Olympian Heights

Chapter Two: The Great Chain Reaction: the ‘Ecological Revolution’ in and around 1970

Chapter Three: Networked Thinking and Practical Priorities: an Endless Interplay
1. On the Ecology of Ecologism
2. Water and the Atom
3. Changing Priorities: the Movement in Motion

Chapter Four: Charismatics and Ecocrats
1. Spiritual Quest and Charismatic Moments
2. Ten Heroines Embodying Tensions in the Movement
3. Institutionalization, Routinization, Revitalization 

Chapter Five: A Friend-Enemy or Win-Win Scenario?
1. From Nuclear Power to the Spotted Owl
2. Violence and the Green Conscience 
3. Ecology and Economics: the Challenge of Conceptual Analogy

Chapter Six: Ecology and the Historic Turn of 1990 - From Social Justice to Climate Justice? 

Conclusion: The Dialectic of Green Enlightenment