NEW BEGINNING: THE COUNTER CULTURE IN AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Jean-Daniel Collomb (1)

1 ILCEA4 - Institut des Langues et Cultures d'Europe, Amérique, Afrique, Asie et Australie

Although it appears to have petered out in the early 1970s, the counter culture of the previous decade modified many aspects of American life beyond recognition. As a matter of fact, there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that its transformative effects are still being felt in American society today. The ideas nurtured by the counter culture have deeply affected the institution of the family, the education system, and the definition of gender roles, to name only the most frequently debated cases. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that American environmentalism was no exception. Indeed, the American environmental movement as it has unfolded since the 1970s bears little resemblance to its earlier version. Up until the 1960s, American environmentalism had been dominated by small-sized, rather exclusive and conservative organizations, like the Sierra Club, whose main focus had been wilderness preservation. By contrast, contemporary American environmentalism has now turned into a mass movement whose membership ranges from old-style nature lovers to radical anti-capitalist activists. Contemporary environmentalists now concern themselves not just with wilderness preservation but also with quality-of-life issues, the effects of high consumption and of the so-called American way of life, and pollution. Such a shift in style and objectives begs several important questions: in what way did the counter culture of the 1960s reshape and redefine American environmentalism? More important still, why were the ideas advocated by the counter-culturists so easily integrated into the environmental agenda? Put differently, one may wonder whether the rapprochement between counter-cultural thinking and environmental activism was inevitable. Answering these questions may help one identify and grasp the philosophical meaning of the counter culture, and its implications within the larger context of American society.

Domains: Environmental studies; Humanities and Social Sciences

Jean-Daniel Collomb. NEW BEGINNING: THE COUNTER CULTURE IN AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY. Cercles : Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Anglophone, 2012, 22, pp.54-69. ⟨hal-03188355⟩