Instructions: Below are two questions about different aspects of the history of the era from 1945 to 1960, and a cumulative question regarding the main question of the course. Answer all three essay questions using essay form (with an introduction, thesis statement, body, and conclusion). Your word count will vary, but I'm guessing that each essay will probably take about 500-1000 words to do a good job. Use the style guide in the syllabus. Give examples from the readings and lectures as appropriate, but remember to cite all quotations or paraphrases. Use this citation style: (Hays, 16). A bibliography is not necessary, unless you are citing sources not used in the course. Your essays are due in my office on Thursday, August 4, by 5:00 p.m.
Essay #1: If the environmental movement arose in the 1950s, it grew to maturity and power in the tumultuous years of the 1960s and 1970s. Write an essay describing how environmentalism bears the stamp of this era. First, how was it a product of the important issues, politics, economics, and concerns of that era? Second, what were environmentalism's greatest achievements and failures?
Essay #2: Assess the legacy of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. This book's main themes included these points:
| The government's failure to regulate or properly use pesticides |
| The first discussion of cancer danger from chemicals in the environment |
| The parallel between nuclear radiation & chemical pollutants |
| Pesticides as symptom of misplaced trust in scientists, engineers, government, and industry |
| Biological & natural controls as alternatives |
Use your essay to describe how these environmentalists took up these themes, developed and expanded them, and put them into everything from personal lifestyles to government policy.
Cumulative essay: Evaluate Adam Rome's article, "Give Earth a Chance," which gives one viewpoint about factors that led to the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s. How and why did the era from about 1950 to about 1980 give birth to environmentalism? Did Rome identify the most important factors? Or would do you think other factors are as or more significant? Explain your answer, and give examples. Refer to all course materials--lecture, readings, the Cadillac Desert video, your own research paper (if relevant), and even music--to place the rise of the environmental movement in its historical context.