Make it a green peace!
Subtitle: the rise of countercultural environmentalism
By: Frank Zelko
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 385
ISBN-13: 9780199947089; 9780190610777
Subjects: Antinuclear movement; Environmental protection; Environmentalism; Political aspects; Counterculture; Greenpeace International; History
Other titles: Green Peace
Description: "The emergence of Greenpeace in the late 1960s from a loose-knit group of anti-nuclear and anti-whaling activists fundamentally changed the nature of environmentalism--its purpose, philosophy, and tactics--around the world. And yet there has been no comprehensive objective history of Greenpeace's origins-until now. Make It a Green Peace! draws upon meeting minutes, internal correspondence, manifestos, philosophical writings, and interviews with former members to offer the first full account of the origins of what has become the most recognizable environmental non-governmental organization in the world. Situating Greenpeace within the peace movement and counterculture of the 1960s, Frank Zelko provides a much deeper treatment of the group's groundbreaking brand of radical, media-savvy, direct-action environmentalism than has been previously attempted. Zelko traces the complex intellectual and cultural roots of Greenpeace to the various protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s, highlighting the influence of Quakerism--with its practice of bearing witness--Native American spirituality, and the non-violent resistance of Gandhi. Unlike the more strait-laced, less confrontational Sierra Club and Audubon Society, early Greenpeacers smoked dope, dropped acid, wore their hair long, and put their bodies on the line--interposing themselves between the harpoons of whalers and the clubs of seal-hunters--to save the animals and achieve what they hoped would be a lasting transformation in the way humans regarded the natural world. And while it may not have achieved its most revolutionary goals, Greenpeace inarguably created a heightened awareness of environmental issues that endures to this day."--Book jacket flap.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 357-374) and index.
Table of contents: title: Speak truth to power; title: The enemies of anarchy; title: The Canadian crucible; title: Don't make a wave; title: Not a protestor in the usual sense; title: Mururoa, mon amour; title: Armless Buddhas vs. carnivorous Nazis; title: The reenchanted whale; title: Stop Ahab; title: On thin ice; title: Blood and death and sex; title: The paradox of power: the birth of Greenpeace International; title: Conclusion.