Carson, Rachel (1907–61)

In 1962, houghton mifflin published Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Although the book had received considerable attention prior to its publication, its actual appearance still created a sensation. The book provides a thorough, systematic, and yet passionate expose of the careless uses of chemicals by agricultural and industrial concerns, often in collusion with governmental agencies that were shortsighted in their attempts to promote increased productivity. In particular, Carson highlighted the enormous environmental hazards created by the widespread use of the pesticide DDT. Because of the book's unprecedented impact, the publication of Silent Spring has often been identified as the genesis of the environmental movement in the United States.

Silent Spring represented the culmination of Carson's career as a scientist and as a writer. On the basis of ...