Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy

BOOKS Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves: A History of American Environmental Policy Richard N. L. Andrews YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS, SECOND EDITION, 2006

Ask any environmental lawyer today about the inception of environmental law and policy in America, and most, if not all, would likely look back to 1970, the year the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act were signed into law by President Nixon, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was created, and the first Earth Day was established (April 22, 1970). But was it truly the beginning or part of an existing continuum?

According to Richard N. L. Andrews in his preface to the first edition of Managing the Environment, Managing Ourselves,

[i]n reality, American environmental policy has far older roots. It includes not only the recent burst of legislation intended to protect the environment, but all the policies by which Americans have used the powers of government to exploit, transform, or control their natural surroundings. These include nearly four hundred years' worth of policies establishing private...