Wallace Kaufman led three statewide environmental groups in North Carolina, ran an organic farm, and did his graduate work on nature and the English Romantic poets--i.e. he knows the environmental movement and its foundations. He also built his own house in his own forest and lived there for 30 years--the simple life. His experience leads him to important disagreements with many environmental activists.

In this book he traces the well springs of modern environmental thinking and how it diverged from the conservation movement of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Giving many examples, he makes the case that our science and technology and creative economy, not a turning back to a simpler life and time, are the answers to solving environmental problems.

Environmentalists who want to understand the roots of their movement and who are interested in creative solutions and a sympathetic critique, will find Kaufman's book an honest and provocative challenge.