Environmental Stewardship: Images from Popular Culture

(Hardback)

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This work addresses the cultural background of stewardship as a progression from individual personal aesthetics to a deeply informed environmental ethic that could become a national environmental policy. Howell begins by assessing our personal cultural background and our philosophical notions of our role in the natural world. She looks at the evolution of Western civilization and changing worldviews in relation to nature, examining especially early conceptions of a more appealing, simpler life closer to nature in contrast to the perceived civilized world that is portrayed as decadent. Howell examines archetypes from literature and the popular arts, finding examples in Jungian psychology and in contemporary film and television that support the Wild Man image and promote the Simple Life yearning. She then looks at the early 20th-century conservation and preservation writers as the most direct ancestors of today's environmental movement and an immediate source of inspiration.

Reviews

Howell begins this fascinating book with a discussion of two films, Local Hero and On Deadly Ground, showing how in various manifestations of popular culture, 'each of us is either endowed with or searching for an environmental aesthetic. Howell argeus that people search for an expression of connection with nature in the popular media, and that this 'sacred journey' leads to better environmental policy. . . . [T]his ambitious and engrossing book presents a new understabding of its topic and is well worth reading. All general and academic collections. * Choice *
[H]arden's offering has the strength of providing a highly readable overview of Columbia River history colored by portrayals of actual participants in an important sector of the region's history. Because of this accessibility, the work will serve students of environmental history and those of regional and United States history generally well. * Environmental History *
[T]he author offers a number of insightful concepts and arguments. . . . Many of Howell's points are extremely thought-provoking. * Environment Education Research *

Author Bio

Dorothy J. Howell, formerly an applied microbial ecologist, environmental counsel and educator, is a candidate for the PhD in environmental studies at Antioch New England Graduate School. She is the author of Ecology for Environmental Professionals (Quorum, 1994), Scientific Literacy and Environmental Policy (Quorum, 1992), and Intellectual Properties and the Legal Protection of Fictional Characters (Quorum, 1990).