Ecologists and Environmental Politics: A History of Contemporary Ecology

by Stephen Bocking

Looks at the history of U.S. environmental policy

Genres: Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 27, 1997

Reviews

[Mathew Powers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this book is informative and well researched. The prose can be insanely dry at times and repetitive, but it does not detract from the value of the information provided. My only true problem with the book's argument involve his motivation to overstate conclusions based on four case studies without examining much of what was going on in culture, academia, or in activism sectors of society. Despite this, his connections between research and application, politics and science, environmentalism vs ecology, and more are done extremely well. One can disagree with a few of his conclusions without it affecting most of book's worth.

So, it's a little dry and a little over-reaching with an overall argument, but still quite good and worthy of a read, to be sure.

[Yeast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another academic book on ecology in UK, US, and Canada. The time frame (late 1940s - early 1970s) and subject matter (the rise of ecosystem ecology in an age of relatively good scientist-government-public relation triangle) are very relevant to my current research. I also appreciate its brief discussion on how popular environmental movement since late 1960s has changed the institutional and political landscape of academic ecology. Overall a modest work that needs more connection to the lives of individual scientists and their own accounts on ecology & society beyond those recorded in published academic literature.