Green History: A Reader in Environmental Literature, Philosophy and Politics

285 Pages·1993·1.43 MB·English

by  Derek Wall

Green history

Green history
A reader in environmental literature, philosophy and
politics
Derek Wall

London and New York
First published 1994
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or
Routledges’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1994 Derek Wall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue reference for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wall, Derek.
Green history: an anthology of environmental literature.
philosophy, and politics/Derek Wall.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Green movement—History. 2. Environmental sciences—
Philosophy-History. 3. Environmental policy-History. I. Title.
GE195.W35 1993
363.7′0525′09-dc20 93–28232
ISBN 0-203-41013-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-71837-2 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-07924-1 (Print Edition) Hb
ISBN 0-415-07925-X (Print Edition) Pb
To Mark B. and Mark S.

Contents

Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1

1 Ancient wisdom 20
2 Ecology and early urban civilization 32
3 The origins of environmental danger 43
4 Theories of breakdown 51
5 Putting the Earth first 62
6 Gaia 74
7 Philosophical holism 85
8 The web of life 98
9 Against growth 109
10 Sustainable development 118
11 The Frankenstein factor 129
12 Peaceful protest 140
13 The city and the country 157
14 Eco-feminism 168
15 Spiritual awakenings 181
16 Literary roots 194
17 Green revolutionaries 203
18 Green politics 214
19 Utopia or else! 225

Suggested further reading 235
Bibliography 243
Index 249
Acknowledgements
Permission to reprint copyright material from the following sources is gratefully
acknowledged. Extract from ‘The discovery of America’ by Paul S. Martin, pp. 969, 972
of Science, volume 179, 3 September 1973, by permission of Paul S. Martin and the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, copyright 1973 by the AAAS.
Extract from Ecology in Ancient Civilizations by J.Donald Hughes, reprinted by
permission of Professor J.Donald Hughes. Extract from The White Goddess by Robert
Graves, reprinted by permission ofA. P.Watt Ltd on behalf of the Trustees of the Robert
Graves Copyright Trust. Extract from J. Smuts, ‘Introduction’ to J. Bews, Human
Ecology, Natal: Natal University (1935), reprinted by kind permission of Mr J.C.Smuts
and Natal University. L.Mumford, The Culture of Cities, London: Seeker and Warburg,
pp. 300–4. Extracts from Point Counter Point and Island by Aldous Huxley, published
by Chatto & Windus, reprinted by permission of Mrs Laura Huxley and Random Century
Group. Extract from Science and Society in Ancient China by Joseph Needham, reprinted
by permission of Cambridge University Press. Extract from The Road to Wigan Pier by
George Orwell, reprinted by permission of the estate of the late Sonia Brownwell Orwell
and Martin Seeker & Warburg Ltd. Extract from Hildegard of Bingen,edited by F.Bowie
and O.Davies, reprinted by permission of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge. Extract from Small is Beautiful by E.F.Schumacher, published by
Hutchinson, reprinted by permission of Random Century Group. Extract from
Capitalism, Socialism and the Environmentby Hugh Stretton, reprinted by permission of
Cambridge University Press. Extract from The Eclipse of Reason by Max Horkheimer
reprinted by permission of The Continuum Publishing Company, copyright 1947 Oxford
University Press, New York, new material copyright 1974 The Seabury Press. Extract
from Man and Nature: The Spiritual Crisis in Modern Man by Syed Nasr reprinted by
permission of Unwin Hyman, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Limited. The
extract reprinted on pages 186–189 is from Women and Nature by Susan Griffin, first
published in Great Britain by The Women’s Press Ltd, 1984, 34 Great Sutton Street,
London EC1 0DX, copyright Susan Griffin 1984, c/o Artellus Ltd, 30 Dorset House,
Gloucester Place, London NW1 5AD. ‘Were the Greeks Green’ by L. Goodison
reproduced by kind permission of Greening the Planet magazine. ‘Longing the die of old
age’ from Living by the Wordby Alice Walker reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace
and Company and The Women’s Press Ltd, copyright 1983 Alice Walker. Extract from
‘Nobody was supposed to survive’ from Living by the Wordby Alice Walker reprinted by
permission of Harcourt Brace and Company and The Women’s Press Ltd, copyright 1983
Alice Walker. Selected excerpt from The Spiral Dance by Starhawk copyright 1979 by
Miriam Simos, reprinted by permission of Harper-Collins, Publishers, Inc. I would
particularly like to thank Mark Lament Brown for reading drafts of this project.
Completion would have been equally impossible without the help of Karen Bell, lan
Coates, Scott Cooper and Mark Simpson or the support of my editor, Tristan Palmer,
Jacqueline Cohen, Gideon Kossoff and Dr lan Welsh read the manuscript and offered
valuable criticism. Thanks must go also to the staff of the following libraries: Bath
University, Bradford University, Bristol City Reference, Bristol University, the
Commonwheal Collection at Bradford University, Sussex University, the University of
London and the University of the West of England. Finally the long-suffering staff of the
British Library deserve my gratitude.