Nature in Crisis: ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson

After following up a lead from a birdwatcher, Rachel Carson drew a web of connections that led to one of the most influential books of the 20th century. Silent Spring (1962) investigated the synthetic pesticides that proliferated after the Second World War, which were assiduously defended by overconfident policymakers, industrial chemists and agribusiness. The book quickly became a bestseller and kickstarted the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. In the first episode of Nature in Crisis, Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith discuss one of the truly great success stories in science writing. Carson was a masterful stylist and gifted scientist who could make abstruse developments in organic chemistry compelling, accessible and alarmingly intimate. Meehan and Peter show how Carson wrote at the edge of science, anticipating the study of epigenetics and endocrine disruption. They illustrate why, though some of her proposed solutions fell short, Silent Spring remains ‘both an exhilarating and melancholy pleasure’. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applecrna⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ture In other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingsna⁠⁠⁠ture Get the book: https://lrb.me/carsoncr Further reading from the LRB: Meehan Crist on Silent Spring https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n11/meehan-crist/a-strange-blight Stephen Mills on Rachel Carson https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v20/n08/stephen-mills/chaffinches-with-their-beaks-pushed-into-the-soil-woodpigeons-with-a-froth-of-spittle-at-their-open-mouths Edmund Gordon on the insect crisis: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n09/edmund-gordon/bye-bye-firefly Anthony Giddens on chemical contamination: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v18/n17/anthony-giddens/why-sounding-the-alarm-on-chemical-contamination-is-not-necessarily-alarmist Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices