InA Climate of Crisis, he offers a provocative history of the U.S. environmental movement - from nuclear fears to antipollution protests to ozone and carbon politics - showing that great progress has been made in air and water quality, health, living standards, and life expectancy, despite exaggeration and fear-mongering from all sides that have sometimes obscured it.
Patrick Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American History at Emory University, where he has taught since 1988. He was an undergraduate at Oxford and a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, and held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard Divinity School and Princeton University. The author of six books, he is also the presenter of eight lecture series with "The Great Courses," including "The Art of Teaching."
The Wall Street Journal:
“In recounting partisan battles, Mr. Allitt’s objectivity is
refreshing…His critique of the relentless crisis mentality will
lead many environmentalists to dismiss the book as
anti-environmental, while anti-environmentalists will object to his
conclusion that much conservation has been achieved at little cost
to ordinary Americans."
The Weekly Standard:
“A book that deserves widespread readership and course adoption…The
virtue of Allitt’s history is a fresh approach to familiar themes
and controversies, and from a perspective only occasionally brought
to bear on the subject…He gets the larger story right…Allitt’s
wide-gauge historical approach is a valuable complement to the many
scientific and policy critiques that have piled up over the
years.”
Martin V. Melosi, author of The Sanitary City and Precious
Commodity:
“In this sweeping study, Patrick Allitt covers every conceivable
major character and event in the modern ‘age of environmentalism.’
The book is grounded in intellectual history, and seeks to find
balance in interpreting the role of environmental advocates and
naysayers, in successes and failures of governmental regulation, in
objectives and outcomes. The tone is definitely optimistic about
the long view of meeting environmental challenges in the United
States. At the same time, in linking past to present, Allitt offers
caution about what might unfold in the days to come. Above all
else, he touts the value of history in assessing America’s complex
environmental legacy.”
Adam Rome, author of The Genius of Earth Day:
“I don’t agree with everything in A Climate of Crisis, but Patrick
Allitt’s well-written and provocative book has given me more to
think about than any other history of the U.S. environmental
movement. A Climate of Crisis is both bracing and exciting.”
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