Author(s): Rachel L. Carson , Al Gore (Introduction)
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN: 0395683297
ISBN-13: 978-0395683293
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Hardcover: 437 pages
ISBN: 0783880537
ISBN-13: 978-0783880532
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Audio Cassette
Publisher: Dh Audio (November 1986)
ISBN-10: 0886461839
ISBN-13: 978-0886461836
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Silent Spring, released in 1962, offered the first shattering look at widespread ecological degradation and touched off an environmental awareness that still exists. Rachel Carson’s book focused on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death. Presented with thorough documentation, the book opened more than a few eyes about the dangers of the modern world and stands today as a landmark work. —
Nature and Ecology Editor’s Recommended Book
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is now 35 years old. Written over the years 1958 to 1962, it took a hard look at the effects of insecticides and pesticides on songbird populations throughout the United States, whose declining numbers yielded the silence to which her title attests. What happens in nature is not allowed to happen in the modern, chemical-drenched world, she writes, where spraying destroys not only the insects but also their principal enemy, the birds. When later there is a resurgence of the insect population, as almost always happens, the birds are not there to keep their numbers in check. The publication of her impeccably reported text helped change that trend by setting off a wave of environmental legislation and galvanizing the nascent ecological movement. It is justly considered a classic, and it is well worth rereading today.
The New York Times Book Review, Lorus Milne and Margery Milne
Her book is a cry to the reading public to help curb private and public programs which by use of poisons will end by destroying life on earth. … Miss Carson, with the fervor of an Ezekiel, is trying to save nature and mankind …
