rachel carson's book silent spring published in the 1960s

Some artists made assertive statements about protecting the land from the ravages of corporate greed: As Jackson Browne sang in “Before the Deluge,” “Some of them were angry at the way the earth was abused/By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power.” In “Big Yellow Taxi,” Joni Mitchell lamented that “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” and invoked a world where “They took all the trees / Put ’em in a tree museum / And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see ’em.” Mitchell explicitly called attention to the insecticide DDT, a specific concern at the heart of Silent Spring. In part thanks to the publication of Silent Spring, environmentally-minded songs began to become commercially popular in the 1960s. Songs created by these communities that address such experiences and concerns have long been part of the American musical landscape. For centuries, indigenous people have witnessed the desecration of the environment, from the eradication of the buffalo to the pollution of waterways to the strip mining of mountains considered sacred. Poor Americans, people of color, and immigrants have regularly worked in close proximity to dangerous chemicals or other pollutants. But well before the publication of Carson’s book, many Americans were already intimately familiar with the dangers of pollution and the extraction of resources.

Silent Spring introduced environmental concerns to new audiences, leading to a strengthened environmental movement. Eight years later, on the first “Earth Day,” Americans joined in protests over the degradation of the country’s air and water, launching an environmental movement that continues today.

In 1962, marine biologist Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a chilling account of the damage done to the environment by pollution, particularly in the form of chemicals and pesticides. In this lesson, students will analyze a series of songs articulating a connection to nature and the environment-a longing to “get ourselves back to the garden”-and examine the ways in which they reflect a growing attention to environmental issues in American culture.

Rachel carson's book silent spring published in the 1960s