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Environmental crisis has plagued America
and the world since the mid-twentieth century, and it haunts
us to this day. From Apocalypse to Way of Life offers
a stirring, comprehensive account of the ongoing ecological
catastrophe and our changing response to it.
When people first become aware of the enormity
of the crisis, they responded with alarm. Books like Rachel
Carson's 1961 bestseller Silent Spring, which catalogued
the destructive impact of chemicals on our ecosystem, typified
the initial reaction. In more recent years, however, the
growing complexity of environmental devastation has produced
suffocating political and cultural forces that only blunt
our responses to it. Today, while we know the situation
is very bad, we have in too many ways come to accept the
deterioration of our planet.
Detailing the hard facts about contemporary
threats to human health -- deforestation, freshwater depletion,
ocean pollution, biodiversity loss, synthetic hormones --
Buell challenges the complacency of those who will dismiss
the bearers of contemporary environmental warnings as mere
"Chicken Littles."
With passion and eloquence, From Apocalypse
to Way of Life shows us the crisis that is staring us
in the face and explains why we can no longer see it.
Frederick Buell teaches English and Cultural
Studies at Queens College/CUNY. He is the author of National
Culture and the New Global System and W. H. Auden
as a Social Poet. He has also published a collection
of poetry, Full Summer.
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