History of the US Environmental Movement

Abstract

In the Unites States, environmental advocacy groups make up what is known as the “environmental movement.” The history of this large, diverse social movement can best be understood by analogy to a river created by the confluence of about two dozen rivulets and tributaries. The main stems derive from two distinct 19th-century social movements, one promoting the conservation of natural resources and the other public health. This article reviews the social, legal, intellectual, and ideological development of the US environmental movement from its earliest influences in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into the 21st century.