Silent Spring

First published in 1962, Silent Spring can single-handedly be credited with sounding the alarm and raising awareness of humankind’s collective impact on its own future through chemical pollution.

Spring is here, but something is wrong. A white, powdery residue covers the trees, fields, and houses—and an eerie silence frightens the people. No birds are singing. From her evocative and deeply troubling opening, scientist and pioneering environmental activist Rachel Carson begins a detailed account of the development of military biocides and their derivative cousins: our common pesticides and herbicides. The palpable threat to public health posed by such notorious chemicals as DDT becomes even more shocking in light of the many politicians and industrialists who crusaded to suppress Carson.

No other book has so strongly influenced the environmental conscience of Americans and the world at large.