Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment

by Joy A. Palmer (Editor), David E. Cooper (Editor)

Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment is a unique guide to environmental thinking through the ages. Joy A. Palmer, herself an important and prolific author on environmental matters, has assembled a team of thirty-five expert contributors to summarize and analyse the thinking of fifty diverse and stimulating figures – from all over the world and from ancient times to the present day. Among those included Lucid, scholarly and informative, these fifty essays offer a fascinating overview of mankind’s view and understanding of the physical world.

Genres: Environment

336 pages, Paperback

First published December 7, 2000

Reviews

[Meg]

Useful introduction to a broad range of figures that have contributed to our current ways of thinking about the environment. Some of the entries on the earlier figures (Buddha, Chuang Tzu, Virgil) are a little lame, and some of the entries on a few of the key American figures (John Muir, Thoreau) don't really contribute much from what you pick up reading environmental literature generally. However, the choice to include people who, while not environmental philosophers, have nonetheless greatly altered our conception of the environment (like Frederick Law Olmsted), is helpful in creating a much better understanding of the history of environmental thought, as is the inclusion of many non-Western thinkers (Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore).

[elise anderson]

A bit dry but a solid collection of big brains and historical/spiritual figures. Each section summarizes a different single thinker's philosophies and work in regards to nature.