Silent Spring led to significant environmental regulations in the United States. If we are living so intimately with chemicals, we had better know something about their power. Her attack on the dominant scientific standards of the day and on the chemical industry captured the attention of the world. Carson had converted years of painstaking research on the biological effects of widespread spraying of insecticides, pesticides and herbicides into a clarion call for control. When the New Yorker first published excerpts from it in the summer of 1962, just before the book’s release, no one was prepared for the response. Silent Spring begins with the parable of a mythical town that awakens one spring to silence, its birds, insects and other wildlife felled by the damage of chemical pollution. Business had a lot to celebrate and more to champion, as wartime technologies were converted to domestic applications, requiring significant government financial and political support. Industry images showed picnicking children being sprayed with DDT. We celebrated the many applications of plastics and synthetic compounds and wondered how agriculture could have thrived without pesticides.

It also caught the attention of leading political figures who were not afraid to confront corporate America.įollowing World War II, the United Stated embarked on a love affair with chemicals. Its message resonated with a public increasingly concerned with the environment and its effect on human health. Seldom does a book generate such controversy, produce such profound and numerous public policy results, or bring about so much new activity in a social movement.īut Silent Spring was no ordinary book. 27, 1962, Rachel Carson published Silent Spring and founded the modern environmental movement. has published.įrom the December 2002/January 2003 issue of Ms. Knopf)-a stunning collection of the most audacious, norm-breaking coverage Ms. For more iconic, ground-breaking stories like this, pre-order 50 YEARS OF Ms.: THE BEST OF THE PATHFINDING MAGAZINE THAT IGNITED A REVOLUTION (Alfred A. To pay tribute to five decades of reporting, rebelling and truth-telling, From the Vault includes some of our favorite feminist classics from the last 50 years of Ms. Rachel Carson stirred up national controversy in 1962 with her book, Silent Spring. In 1962, Rachel Carson’s attack on the dominant scientific standards of the day and on the chemical industry captured the attention of the world.

Silent spring by rachel carson