Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism
- ISBN-10
- 0700615458
- ISBN-13
- 9780700615452
- Category
- Technology & Engineering / General
- Pages
- 303
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2007
- Publisher
- University Press of Kansas
- Author
- Andrew G. Kirk
Description
For those who eagerly awaited its periodic appearance, it was more than a publication: it was a way of life. The Whole Earth Catalog billed itself as "Access to Tools," and it grew from a Bay Area blip to a national phenomenon catering to hippies, do-it-yourselfers, and anyone interested in self-sufficiency independent of mainstream America.
In recovering the history of the Catalog's unique brand of environmentalism, Andrew Kirk recounts how San Francisco's Stewart Brand and his counterculture cohorts in the Point Foundation promoted a philosophy of pragmatic environmentalism that celebrated technological achievement, human ingenuity, and sustainable living. By piecing together the social, cultural, material, environmental, and technological history of that philosophy's incarnation in the Catalog, Kirk reveals the driving forces behind it, tells the story of the appropriate technology movement it espoused, and assesses its fate.
This book takes a fresh look at the many individuals and organizations who worked in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s to construct this philosophy of pragmatic environmentalism. At a time when many of these ideas were seen as heretical to a predominantly wilderness-based movement, Whole Earth became a critical forum for environmental alternatives and a model for how complicated ecological ideas could be presented in a hopeful and even humorous way. It also enabled later environmental advocates like Al Gore to explain our current "inconvenient truth," and the actions of Brand's Point Foundation demonstrated that the epistemology of Whole Earth could be put into action in meaningful ways that might foster an environmental optimism distinctly different from the jeremiads that became the stock in trade of American environmentalism.
Kirk shows us that Whole Earth was more than a mere counterculture fad. In an era of political protest, it suggested that staying home and modifying your toilet or installing a solar collector could make a more significant contribution than taking to the streets to shout down establishment misdeeds. Given its visible legacy in the current views of Al Gore and others, the subtle environmental heresies of Whole Earth continue to resonate today, which makes Kirk's lucid and lively tale an extremely timely one as well.
Get the book
Similar books
-
The Earliest Wheeled Transport: From the Atlantic Coast to the Caspian Sea
By Stuart PiggottFrom the Atlantic Coast to the Caspian Sea Stuart Piggott. of Homer's time or in the far - off western Bronze Age , but ceremony , parade and display are another matter . Buchner ( 1979 ) has drawn attention to the legend , recorded by ...
-
From Millwrights to Shipwrights to the Twenty-first Century: Explorations in a History of Technical Communication in the United States
By R. John BrockmannThe millwrights ' and millers ' resistance to Evans's message was so great that their first recorded reaction was : “ It will not do ! it cannot do !! it is impossible that it should do !!! " 9 Nevertheless , Evans persisted in his ...
-
Handbooks and Tables in Science and Technology
By Russell Powell... 3380 Baker, J. Stannard, 3507 Baker, P.C., 2615 Baker, R.S., 1359 Baker, Richard H., 475 Baker, Robert F., 1491 Bakish, Robert, 1360 Balcomb, J. Douglas, 2576 Balkanski, Minko, 2554 Ballantyne, John, 3545 Ballard, J.R.,2416 Ballard, ...
-
Introduction to Solar Technology
By Marian Jacobs Fisk, H. C. William AndersonNational Solar Heating and Cooling Information Center , P.O. Box 1607 , Rockville , MD 29850 , toll free ( 800 ) 523-2929 ( from Pennsylvania [ 800 ] 462-4983 ) . Manufacturers and Products : Directories Ann Arbor Science Publishers ...
-
大师写给你的科学通识课（套装共4册）
By （美）西蒙·纽康, 陈子鹏译, （英）查尔斯·达尔文查尔斯·莱尔爵士的宏伟著作《地质学原理》被后代的历史学家认为是自然科学领域的一场革命,能够读懂此书却不承认过去的时代极为久远的人,请不要再继续读我 ... 拉姆塞和维特克先生曾提起过一个令人印象深刻的发现,即威尔顿地区和横贯英格兰的巨大陡崖线。
-
应用信息物理系统
By （美）桑·C.徐（Sang C.Suh）, （美）U.约翰·塔尼克（U.John Tanik）, （美）约翰·N.卡蓬（John N.Carbone）(美)桑·C.徐(Sang C.Suh), (美)U.约翰·塔尼克(U.John Tanik), (美)约翰·N.卡蓬(John N.Carbone), (美)阿卜杜拉·埃尔奥卢(Abdullah Eroglu), 牛文生. 记信息等都会留给爱丽丝很大的信息量。在最后一个情形里,关于婚礼的任何一个细节都与爱丽丝的切身利益 ...
-
每具屍體都會留下痕跡
By 派翠西亞‧威爾特希我和珍妮知道在何時何地尋找這些小點心,看到今日的孩子被電動遊戲和社交軟體給迷住了,無法進行這種冒險,我就會覺得很可惜。正如前面所說的,野外總有許多安全可食的野生植物,當然也有許多植物是一定要避開的。雖然動物和植物一起演化了幾百萬年, ...
-
最震撼的世界未解之谜大全集
By 崔钟雷《最震撼的世界未解之谜大全集》精选了关于人类、历史、宫廷、名人、宇宙、地理、动物、植物等多方面的未解之谜及相关知识，全方位、多角度的方式展示了人类文明中诸多领域 ...
-
国外生物专业经典教材·分子生物技术导论
By 温克, 唐蕾其他转变物,如蓝色和红色荧光蛋白以及GFP的一种光活化形式被发展起来了,而它们被用于细胞生物学中。所有这些以蛋白质为基础的荧光染料的共同点就是这样一个事实,即作为蛋白质,它们向所关心的融合蛋白引入了一个相当大的分子质量和一段特定的结构。
-
Technology as a Human Affair
By Larry A. HickmanWilson came under attack in part because he made some strong assertions that he didn't ( and I think couldn't ) defend ... “ Most reviewers have found Wilson's ethological analyses and interdisciplinary coverage stimulating , though not ...