The Postwar Origins of the Global Environment

An engaging microhistory. * Choice * Selcer's path-breaking study provides an original and thought-provoking account of the origins of global environmentalism within the world of mid-twentieth-century internationalism and its associated movements. His work brims with novel and important insights that will reshape scholarship in international history, environmental history, and the history of science. -- Jessica Wang, University of British Columbia The Postwar Origins of the Global Environment reveals the hidden history of international society's formative ideas. Before NGOs, before a world community could have moral weight, there had to be a theory of reform that was both widely shared and planetary in scale. Selcer shows how foundational beliefs of globalism-development, conservation, world citizenship, localism, the biosphere-originated among an international community of scientists and activists seeking answers for aggression, disease, and scarcity. Along the way are vivid portraits of iconic thinkers, such as Margaret Mead, Gunnar Myrdal, George Kennan, who often formed unexpected alliances. An absorbing, thoroughly detailed account. -- Nick Cullather, Indiana University, Bloomington Perrin Selcer shows the persistent attempts by UN-related researchers to produce global citizenship. In the process, he shows convincingly, a global epistemic community was created. Impressively researched, The Postwar Origins of the Global Environment is highly original. An authoritative study. -- Alison Bashford, author of <i>Global Population: History, Geopolitics and Life on Earth</i>