From Apocalypse to Way of Life

From Apocalypse to Way of Life is a comprehensive and in depth survey of environmental crisis as it has been understood for the last four decades. Buell recounts the growing number of ecological and social problems critical for the environment, and the impact that the growing experience with, and understanding of, them has had on American politics, society and culture.

'Has the over-used rhetoric of the 'end of nature' only deadened our imagination to the very real environmental apocalypse around us? Buell asks very tough questions with intellectual precision and unflinching courage.' - Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear'This is an admirably scholarly, but not at all academic, portrait of American society through the last 40 years of the "post-Carson" world, living in-and with-environmental crisis and its social, political, ecological, and cultural consequences. Thorough and intellectually subtle.' - Kirkpatrick Sale, author of The Green Revolution and Rebels Against the Future'It is entirely possible, as Frederick Buell points out, that we won't take the steps necessary to ward off environmental apocalypse. But at the very least we can fulfill our other human duty, to bear witness both to the beauty of the present earth and to its degradation. Buell carefully catalogues those witnesses, and in so doing adds some important glosses of his own to this necessary task.' - Bill McKibben, author of Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age'Intelligent, passionate, clearly written (and thus excellent for teaching) and challenging, they make powerful contributions to understanding both The Mess We're In and the ways in which we've thought about that mess From Apocalypse to Way of Life is, quite simply, a brilliant book. This is an excellent treatment of the interconnections among politics, (pseudo) science and economics, and ideology.' - Roger S. Gottlieb, Professor of Philosophy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute'An immensely thought-provoking book of impressive scope and depth, From Apocalypse to Way of Life should be read by anyone seeking to understand what it means to live--as we are undeniably living--amid perpetual crisis.' - Daniel J. Philippon, University of Minnesoty, ISLE'This is a fascinating book: a must-read for anyone anywhere who needs a good explanation of the environmental crisis we have learned to inhabit.' - Local Environment, 'Outstanding... an important book.' - Andy McLaughlin, author of Regarding Nature'This is one of the best books I have read on environmental politics in a long, long time.' - John Barry, author of The Environment and Social Theory'This is a fascinating book: a must-read for anyone anywhere who needs a good explanation of the environmental crisis we have learned to inhabit.' - Local Environment

Frederick Buell teaches English and cultural studies at Queens College/CUNY. He is the author of NationalCulture and the New Global System and W.H. Auden as aSocial Poet. He has also published a collection of poetry, Full Summer.