#259 Silent Spring Revolution w/ Douglas Brinkley
The Road to Now
Benjamin Sawyer
4.8 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2023
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
At the end of World War II, the United States had few laws protecting the environment. Just 30 years later, the Environmental Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act had been enacted, representing the urgency of, and widespread support for, environmental protections in those years. Douglas Brinkley, author of Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening (Harper Collins, 2022) joins Bob & Ben to discuss the story of environmentalism in the US from Kennedy to Nixon, and how ecologists and great thinkers such as Rachel Carson were able to channel public concern over the environment into policies that continue to benefit us today.
Dr. Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, a CNN Presidential Historian, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. You can hear our previous conversations with Doug in RTN episode 52 and episode 87.
You can hear our full unedited conversation w/ Douglas Brinkley by joining us on Patreon! Just click here or go to Patreon.com/TheRoadToNow to join!
This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher and Ben Sawyer.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ben Sawyer and before we get into this episode of The Road to Now, I just want to let everyone know that moving forward we're going to be editing our main conversations down to 49 minutes. |
| 0:11.8 | But for those of you guys who support us on Patreon, you'll get the full thing. |
| 0:15.5 | So if you want to do that, go over to patreon.com slash the road to now where you'll get the full unedited conversation. |
| 0:22.3 | For example, today's is actually another 16 minutes of great conversation. |
| 0:26.8 | So if you want to check that out again, it's patreon.com slash the road to now. |
| 0:31.5 | For all of you who are already there supporting us, thank you so much. |
| 0:35.0 | We hope that you guys will enjoy the extra minutes. |
| 0:36.9 | For those of you guys who aren't, |
| 0:38.5 | we welcome you with open arms. Without further ado, this week's new episode. I'm Bob Crawford. |
| 0:45.1 | And I'm Ben Sawyer. And this is the road to now. Today, we are going to spend an hour outside, |
| 0:53.0 | at least in our minds. Close your eyes and B. Picture that, that most |
| 0:58.0 | beautiful place in nature. You just feel like you're one with nature. Go there in your mind as we |
| 1:03.9 | talk to historian Doug Brinkley about his new book, which I would say it's part three of a trilogy. And it is a magnum opus |
| 1:14.9 | unto itself called Silent Spring Revolution, John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, |
| 1:23.0 | Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening. Welcome, Doug. Welcome back. Welcome back. |
| 1:29.2 | Oh, yeah. Welcome back. That's a big thing. Happy New Year to you and everybody who tunes in. |
| 1:34.8 | I really enjoy what you do. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. We're so grateful to have you. |
| 1:40.1 | I mentioned that this is part three of a trilogy. The first book was The Wilderness Warrior, and it was about Theodore Roosevelt, his life as a |
| 1:49.8 | conservationist and a president. |
| 1:51.3 | And then Rightful Heritage, which looked at Franklin Delano Roosevelt's policies and love for |
| 1:57.9 | the environment and belief in conserving the natural beauty and resources of the |
| 2:04.2 | nation, well, now you move us into, really, the book really is the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, |
... |
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