"Hays argues that environmentalists arose from a `fundamental and central' change in values among the American people following World War II. In developing his thesis Hays gives nearly encyclopedic coverage to a wide range of environmental issues, from wild lands, to toxics, to population growth, and examines attempts to resolve those issues in legislative, administrative, and judicial forums. This is a very important book. It raises issues of concern to all American historians and thus deserves wide reading and vigorous debate." Journal of American History

• Preface; Introduction: Environmental Politics - the New and the Old; 1. From conservation to environment; 2. Variation and pattern in the environmental impulse; 3. The urban environment; 4. The nation's wildlands; 5. The countryside: A land rediscovered, yet threatened; 6. The toxic environment; 7. Population, resources, and the limits to growth; 8. Environmental inquiry and ideas; 9. The environmental opposition; 10. The politics of science; 11. The politics of economic analysis and planning; 12. The middle ground: Management of environmental restraint; 13. Environmental politics in the States; 14. The politics of legislation, administration, and litigation; 15. The Reagan antienvironmental revolution; 16. Environmental society and environmental politics; Notes; Index.