Various authors - American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau

American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau

Edited by Bill McKibben • Foreword by Al Gore

"American Earth can be read as a survey of the literature of American environmentalism, but above all, it should be enjoyed for the sheer beauty of the writing."
— Publishers Weekly(starred review)

"Unique, much-needed . . . If you choose but one environmental book this season, make it American Earth."
— Booklist(starred review)

Overview | Table of Contents

Save $50 when you buy this book as part of the Treasury of American Nature Writing Set!

80 pages of photographs, many in full color
Same trim size and Smyth-sewn binding used for other Library of America series titles
Printed on high-quality, acid-free paper with 50% post-consumer waste

Read an exclusive interview with volume editor Bill McKibben (PDF, 71K)

As America and the world grapple with the consequences of global environmental change, writer and activist Bill McKibben offers this unprecedented, inspiring, and timely anthology gathering the best and most significant American environmental writing from the last two centuries. "Each advance in environmental practice" in our nation's history, McKibben observes in his introduction, "was preceded by a great book." Here, for the first time in a single volume, are the words that made a movement.

Classics of the environmental imagination—the essays of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and John Burroughs; Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac; Rachel Carson's Silent Spring—are set alongside an emerging activist movement, revealed by newly uncovered reports of pioneering campaigns for conservation, passages from landmark legal opinions and legislation, and searing protest speeches. Throughout, some of America's greatest and most impassioned writers take a turn toward nature, recognizing the fragility of our situation on earth and the urgency of the search for a sustainable way of life. Thought-provoking essays on overpopulation, consumerism, energy policy, and the nature of "nature" join ecologists' memoirs and intimate sketches of the habitats of endangered species. The anthology includes a detailed chronology of the environmental movement and American environmental history, as well as an 80-page color portfolio of illustrations.

Bill McKibben, editor, is the author of many books, including The End of Nature (1989), the first account of global warming for a general audience, and most recently Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future (2007). Since 2006, he has organized the largest demonstrations against the causes of global warming in American history. He is scholar in residence at Middlebury College.

The trade edition of American Earth features Smyth-sewn binding and a ribbon marker, yet it has a dual-laminated, full-color cover that differs from the cloth used for other titles in the series. A limited clothbound printing of this book (with slipcases) is available exclusively to subscribers. Find out how to subscribe here.

Save $50 when you buy this book as part of the Treasury of American Nature Writing Set!

Also of interest:
John James Audubon, Writings and Drawings
William Bartram, Travels and Other Writings
John Muir, Nature Writings
Henry David Thoreau, A Week, Walden, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod
Henry David Thoreau, Collected Essays and Poems