Silent Spring

Rachel Carson

Silent Spring is widely credited with helping launch the contemporary American environmental movement. When the book Silent Spring was published, Rachel Carson was already a well-known writer on natural history, but had not previously been a social critic. The book was widely read—especially after its selection by the Book-of-the-Month Club and the New York Times best-seller list—and inspired widespread public concerns with pesticides and pollution of the environment. Silent Spring facilitated the ban of the pesticide DDT for agricultural use in 1972 in the United States. The book documented detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading disinformation, and public officials of accepting industry claims uncritically.

status	Copy #1 (6506): in
genre	Hard Science » Ecology
publisher	Houghton Mifflin
publish date	1962
popularity	checked out 2 time(s)