Synopses & Reviews
“Romes genial new book . . . brings to life another era.” —Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
The first Earth Day is the most famous little-known event in modern American history. Because we still pay ritual homage to the planet every April 22, everyone knows something about Earth Day. Some people may also know that Earth Day 1970 made the environmental movement a major force in American political life. But no one has told the whole story before.
The story of the first Earth Day is inspiring: it had a power, a freshness, and a seriousness of purpose that are difficult to imagine today. Earth Day 1970 created an entire green generation. Thousands of Earth Day organizers and participants decided to devote their lives to the environmental cause. Earth Day 1970 helped to build a lasting eco-infrastructure—lobbying organizations, environmental beats at newspapers, environmental-studies programs, ecology sections in bookstores, community ecology centers.
In The Genius of Earth Day, the prizewinning historian Adam Rome offers a compelling account of the rise of the environmental movement. Drawing on his experience as a journalist as well as his expertise as a scholar, he explains why the first Earth Day was so powerful, bringing one of the greatest political events of the twentieth century to life.
Review
“Adam Romes genial new book . . . brings to life another era. Were as distant from Earth Day as the Battle of Gettysburg was from James Monroes reëlection, and Rome evokes a United States that feels, politically, like a foreign country . . . In Romes view, the original Earth Day remains a model of effective political organizing.”
—Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
“A fascinating treatment of both environmentalism and the structure of activism at the time.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Romes retelling of the hopeful origins of Earth Day and its early successes contain an important lesson for today. The social movements and anti-war crusades that swept through the country in the 1960s and 70s and the movement to promote respect for the natural world demonstrate the tremendous power of activism and grass-roots organizing.”
—The Post-Courier (Charleston, SC)
“This is not just history—its a highly useful guidebook for anyone trying now to summon the same passion and build the same movement that shook up the world in 1970!”
—Bill McKibben, author of Home and Away: Jail Cells, Beehives, and the Fight for a Working Planet
“Adam Rome has written the first serious history of the largest demonstration in American history—and it is likely to be the definitive one. His wise and captivating narrative explains the roots and remarkable success of Earth Day and should be required reading for anyone who struggles to prevent climate change today.”
—Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation
Synopsis
"Rome's genial new book . . . brings to life another era." --Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker
The first Earth Day is the most famous little-known event in modern American history. Because we still pay ritual homage to the planet every April 22, everyone knows something about Earth Day. Some people may also know that Earth Day 1970 made the environmental movement a major force in American political life. But no one has told the whole story before.
The story of the first Earth Day is inspiring: it had a power, a freshness, and a seriousness of purpose that are difficult to imagine today. Earth Day 1970 created an entire green generation. Thousands of Earth Day organizers and participants decided to devote their lives to the environmental cause. Earth Day 1970 helped to build a lasting eco-infrastructure--lobbying organizations, environmental beats at newspapers, environmental-studies programs, ecology sections in bookstores, community ecology centers.
In The Genius of Earth Day, the prizewinning historian Adam Rome offers a compelling account of the rise of the environmental movement. Drawing on his experience as a journalist as well as his expertise as a scholar, he explains why the first Earth Day was so powerful, bringing one of the greatest political events of the twentieth century to life.
About the Author
Adam Rome teaches environmental history and environmental nonfiction at the University of Delaware. Before earning his PhD in history, he worked for seven years as a journalist. His first book, The Bulldozer in the Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism, won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award and the Lewis Mumford Prize.