Silent Spring

A new history of the environmental movement places too much emphasis on famous figures like Rachel Carson and shies away from confronting failures.

Scientists have found toxic levels of the chemical at large. And some groups are making the case to produce even more.

Reading Silent Spring today, in the hazy reddish glow of climate catastrophe, is both an exhilarating and a melancholy pleasure.

When Silent Spring was published, the response was overtly gendered. Rachel Carson's critics depicted her as hysterical, mystical, and witchy.

She did not write her most famous work until late in life. Until then, she thought of herself as a poet of the sea.