Greenspeak

• Author(s): Frome, Michael
• Series:
• Imprint: Univ Tennessee Press
• Publication Date: 2002-12-12
• Status: Active
• Available in Paper: Price $21.95 | Buy Now

For five decades, Michael Frome crisscrossed America in the cause of conservation. Writer, teacher, advocate, and activist, Frome was a captivating speaker who inspired young and old in many settings and offended many others by taking a strong, courageous stand in defense of our nation’s resources and against political expediency, entrenched bureaucracy, and corporate greed.

Greenspeak is a collection of addresses made by Frome from 1963 to 2001—speeches that offer insight into virtually every major conservation issue of the second half of the twentieth century. As exciting as Frome’s personal appearances, these talks encapsulate the American environmental movement over its most turbulent and productive era.

In speaking out on threats to wildlife and wilderness, abuse and misuse of public parks and forests, and environmental damages caused by chemical poisons, Frome displays incisive knowledge of these issues. Further, he provides revealing closeups of key events and personalities shaping the allocation and use of natural resources in the last half of the twentieth century. In these talks, for which Frome has written context-setting introductions, he also makes a strong case for advocacy journalism, urging his own original profession to move away from passionless “objectivity.”

Stimulating and thought-provoking, Greenspeak clearly shows that Frome remains a strong, unflinching voice for environmental stewardship and the protection of nature. As Americans risk forgetting the struggles of earlier environmentalists with each succeeding generation, Frome’s words bring that past to light and point the way toward promoting tomorrow’s environmental causes.

The Author: Michael Frome (1920–2016), who began his career as a reporter for the Washington Post, was a featured columnist in Field & Stream, the Los Angeles Times, and Defenders of Wildlife. He served as a professor at the universities of Idaho and Vermont, Western Washington University, and Northland College. His books include Conscience of a Conservationist, Promised Land, and Strangers in High Places: The Story of the Great Smoky Mountains, all available from Tennessee.