Loving Nature, Fearing the State: Environmentalism and Antigovernment Politics before Reagan

"Drake’s analysis succeeds in highlighting the complex and contradictory ways that conservatives have engaged in modern environmentalism....[he]contributes both to the growing literature on the rise of the conservative Right and to studies on the American environmental movement, an intersection that has been explored by few other scholars." -- James Morton Turner * American Historical Review * "Drake’s book fills an obvious void in the literature, and he should be commended for creatively pulling from across a wide landscape of antistatist political thought in the postwar period about the environment, especially in the West…[the] lively writing will keep readers engaged and certainly heading back to Abbey’s writings and Goldwater’s complicated legacy." -- Karen Merrill * Journal of American History * "This well-written and informative book is an important addition to the scant literature on the role of conservative and libertarian thought in shaping the postwar environmental consciousness. Loving Nature, Fearing the State is suited for upper-division or graduate courses in environmental history and the postwar United States. It should stimulate fruitful discussions among a generation of students who have little exposure to environmental problems outside the framework of polarized politics." -- Ian Stacy * H-Environment * "[An] important examination of the relationship between conservatism and environmentalism." -- David A. James * Alaska Dispatch News * "Original and wide-ranging research…[that] fills the void in the history of the environmental movement." -- Paul Lindholdt * Pacific Northwest Quarterly * "Since 1980, Reagan-style political conservatism and environmental preservation have been locked in a state of near-constant warfare. Historian Drake (Georgia) reveals that for most of the 20th century, the moderate and conservative Republican Right actually had been ideological kindred spirits with postwar Left-leaning environmentalists." * Choice * "The brilliance of this book is how it shows that conservative ideas and values will remain important to the environmental movement, even if many self-identified conservatives cynically ignore them." -- Phil Brick * Environmental Politics * "[A] deeply researched and thought-provoking book, which is sure to be of interest to both environmental and political historians." -- George Vrtis * Historian, The *