"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson: A Journey of Spiritual Discovery and Growth from Within.

D Keeley: Things have got worse since this book. Well worth the read though.

United Kingdom on Nov 13, 2023

Christine S.: this is a must read for anyone interested in the environment. after 60 years, still one of the best on the subject! (also read "An inconvenient truth" by al gore)

Canada on Nov 06, 2023

Paul T Garrett: A very interesting book on how we modern humans have waged a chemical war against our earth, flora, and fauna.

The book is dry, very high-level academic-style reading, but still enough to keep your mind fed with pertinent information to keep your interest. It took me a couple of months to get through the book, having to pause and digest as I went along. But I am very glad I pushed through the slower parts to completion.

Frankly, I would suggest this book more to a younger academic crowd who could use this information to continue the work of others to remove chemicals from our environment and continue to develop and use methods that are more in harmony with the natural environment.

United States on Nov 02, 2023

Amazon Customer: Classic book on use of pesticides, their destructive qualities and the preservation of our wildlife. Cover is really nice. Honorable product that I’m sure Rachel Carson would appreciate.

United States on Jul 31, 2023

TJ: This book highlights the humanistic belief that we alone can decide which creatures are allowed to exist by using our "superior"knowledge of biological, chemical and dermatological sciences. The 1950/60's scientists and food producers have a lot to answer for. Excellent eye-opener, thought provoking read.

United Kingdom on Jun 27, 2023

Libby: This is a fantastic book and although some of the issues it raises have been dealt with, it still has a great deal to see about the use of hazardous chemicals which may slowly poison us but which we tolerate because we believe will help us produce cheap food. Whoever converted the book into electronic text missed the fact that all the double Ls have been deleted.

United Kingdom on Mar 27, 2023

pt: I recommend everyone read the introduction, it is very informative and you will be glad you read all of it. It is insightful and moves you the reason for the lost of many wonderful site around the our country or sites around the world if you think about it. Leases you into the meaning of the book and makes you think that not enough thoughts have not been put in how to use by products have not been taken into consideration. Just consider how some companies might have survived better with communities if they had invested in finding a way to use the byproducts to benefit the community. If only they invested the money and employed scientist to research how to make it a useful product. See if you can come up a solution as you read.
I bought a copy for myself, read it and bought one for my granddaughter who is in college.

United States on Jan 03, 2023

misterbustercat: It takes a strong writer with a very clear view ( back in the early 60’s) to make a very sciency topic into a gripping read. Ms. Carson broke down a complex scientific relationship between chemicals and the welfare of the planet and those of us who live here.. All of us, down to the microbes. This is a very logical explanation of how all living things are dependent on a clean environment, and how profiteering companies have compromised the health of all life on earth in the name of fewer weeds, attractive produce at the market, and ignoring the failures of the chemical approach that disregards integrated pest management.
I promise you that it’s not a boring textbook study.
I was a pest control advisor for many years, and had I known then what I know now I’d have trusted less in what I was trained, looking harder into the collateral damage that was created, and pushed harder, sooner, to stop the use of carbamate, organophosphates, and other “harmless” pesticides and carriers that have destroyed a multitude of environmentally sensitive and important components of a healthy ecosystem that we may not recover from in the name of profit.
Other than that, it’s light...

United States on Jun 02, 2022

Chongyean Cheang: Silent Spring by Rachel Carson is one book that has opened our minds to how much has gone wrong in the world. It is an immensely powerful scientific book for general readers packed full of verifiable research and data. Rachel Carson wrote the book about the widespread use of chemical pesticides that have wreaked havoc upon the water, the atmosphere, the soil, and the earth since the experiments conducted during World War II. Carson begins the book with a short chapter containing an imaginary scenario of a quiet American countryside in spring devoid of birds and other wildlife. Carson then asks a question which the book attempts to answer: "What has already silenced the voices of spring in many towns in America?" (Carson 1962) The other sixteen chapters fully detail how the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides impacts the environment and silences living species when people do not pay attention. In chapter two she makes the point that humans can alter nature. "The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea" (Carson 1962). The author demonstrates that people try to get a quick fix for their small problems but are...

United States on Feb 12, 2018

Ian Robertson: What is most surprising - and impressive - about Rachel Carson's 1962 book Silent Spring, which effectively kicked off the public environmental movement, is that it is still current, still relevant, and still a powerful call to action. Carson did for the environment movement what Jane Jacobs did for urban planning - gave voice, visibility, structure, and enduring direction to a core issue of modern society.

First published to wide acclaim and readership in serial format in the New Yorker magazine, Silent Spring was quickly reissued in book format. Carson was both an expert in her field (masters degree in zoology; decades of field work) and a seasoned writer (editor-in-chief of the US Fish & Wildlife Department publications; author of several books), but perhaps because she was an outsider to academia (female, non-university employed), she wrote for a general audience. Though it is rich with scientific detail, it can be easily followed by any reader.

The book consists of 17 short chapters, and befitting its serialized origin, each is concise, focussed on a particular issue, well researched and referenced, and rationally argued. For example, in chapter two Carson...

Canada on Apr 24, 2017