Title: David Schuyler. Embattled River: The Hudson and Modern American Environmentalism.
Abstract: The Hudson River occupies a central place in the American environmental imagination. From the Hudson River School to Riverkeeper, the Hudson has inspired nature lovers, conservationists, and ardent environmentalists for nearly two centuries. Though others have examined the Hudson in history, David Schuyler’s Embattled River: The Hudson and Modern American Environmentalism is the first to grapple with the broader import of Hudson River environmentalism. In a cogent and well-written book, Schuyler shows that since the mid-twentieth century, a succession of environmentalists has rededicated themselves to a simple mantra: the “Hudson River is still worth fighting for” (226). Whether battling against new power plants along the lower Hudson or PCB contamination upriver, Hudson environmentalists have impacted state, federal, and even global understandings ecological reform. This is a timely and important book that illuminates environmental activism in an iconic American region. It also makes an important point about the genealogy of modern American environmentalism itself.