The Aspen Institute

Silent Spring Revolution: The Environment from JFK to Joe Biden
Featuring Douglas Brinkley, New York Times bestselling author and the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University in conversation with Denali Barron, senior educator at the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES). Brinkley will discuss the rise of environmental activism during the Long Sixties (1960-1973) and the key figures that sparked an environmental revolution. What can we learn from these activists in our own crusade against climate change and resource exhaustion? Can we find hope in their stories?
Live event, Paepcke Auditorium

While attendance at the events is free and open to everyone, registration is required, and capacity is established on a first-come, first-served basis. Register here.

Parking
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You can purchase his book Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening here. Books will also be available for purchase at the event. Book signing to follow.

“Doug Brinkley has done it again! Silent Spring Revolution showcases his mastery of the art of storytelling, deep knowledge of presidential history and passion for the natural world. Through exhaustive research and beautiful writing, Brinkley creates vibrant portraits of the grassroots activists—Rachel Carson, Cesar Chavez and William O’Douglas— whose work influenced the levers of power inside the White Houses of John Kennedy, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson and Richard Nixon with extraordinary results. This is not only a majestic work of history; it is an urgent call for our time.” — Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian

“Beginning with The Wilderness Warrior, his sweeping book on Theodore Roosevelt and the conservation movement, Doug Brinkley has been our foremost chronicler of how presidents shape our environmental policy. In this very important and timely book, filled with fascinating historical revelations, Brinkley describes how three presidents of the Long Sixties embraced the wave of environmental concerns unleashed by Rachel Carson’s great work. The sense of common stewardship provides great lessons for today’s partisan and poisonous political discourse.” — Walter Isaacson

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society, trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” Six of his nonfiction books have been chosen as New York Times’s “Notable Book of the Year”. He is also the recipient of such environmental leadership prizes as the Frances K. Hutchison Medal (Garden Club of America), Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks (National Parks Conservation Association), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lifetime Heritage Award. His book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. As a music producer he earned two Grammy Awards for Presidential Suite (Large Jazz Ensemble) and Fandango on the Wall for (Latin Jazz). He is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes recently won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. His most recent book is Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Denali Barron grew up hiking and skiing in the Roaring Fork Valley and moved to Aspen full-time in 2012. As a Senior Educator with the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (ACES), she works to connect young people to the natural world through exploration and inquiry. She holds a BA in Anthropology and Environmental Studies from Princeton University.

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