Canadian Countercultures and the Environment
La description
Those who moved “back-to-the-land” following the turbulent 1960s engaged with environmental issues in ways that have had a long-term impact on Canadian society. This collection contributes a sustained analysis of the beginning of key environment debates in the 1970s and 1980s. Chapters examine a range of issues related to broad environmental concerns—activism, midwifery, organic farming, recycling, urban cycling, and communal living—from the Yukon to Atlantic Canada.
Reviews
Canadian Countercultures and the Environment provides an insightful and engaging overview of this understudied aspect of Canadian environmental history. A well researched survey of the broad range of approaches to environmental politics fostered by the Canadian counterculture. In focusing on the legacies of these actions, it highlights the countercultural antecedents of many contemporary environmental debates and situates taken-for-granted environmental practices within this cultural history.
—James Rhatigan, BC Studies
Youth countercultures of the late twentieth century undoubtedly influenced the development of environmental thought and activism in Canada. Canadian Countercultures and the Environment offers a rich collection of essays that explore the scale and significance of that activism.
—Sean Kheraj, Environmental History
This interesting and important collection of essays demonstrates that in bringing the values of consumption–oriented mainstream society into question, the youthful countercultural movement—including those who attempted to create their own utopias—made an important and lasting contribution to the environmental movement in Canada and further afield
—Jack Little, Network in Canadian History and Environment