statistics was unlikely to persuade people to support environmental legislation.

The image of a silent spring, a spring in which no songbirds sing, is, however, more than any statistic, chilling to the human heart. It helps make the effects of pesticides real to people in an every day, ordinary way. More subtly, and Carson mentions this openly in her book, it suggests the silence that fell after the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Carson is attempting to link the possibility of environmental devastation to that of atomic devastation, much on people's minds at the time. The title is powerful and memorable.

Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring was a landmark in the history of the environmental movement, not only for the quality of its scientific research but for the poignancy of its writing.

The book opens with a striking image of a typical American town, pictured as a visually appealing place with a classic small town feel. There is, however, something wrong with the town. It is silent, in so far as the normal natural sounds are not present. In the spring, one should hear insects buzzing and birds singing. Instead, this spring is ominously silent, with none of the normal sounds of natural life. In Carson's words:

There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example— where had they gone? ... The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. ... It was a spring without voices.

With this striking image, Carson then moves on to analysis of the effects of pesticides and insecticides, especially DDT, on birds and other wildlife. Her far-ranging analysis shows that to understand their effects, one must study ecosystems as a whole. Her book eventually led to a ban on DDT, and thus saved the towns of the sort she described from the fate of having silent springs.

"Silent Spring" gives an effective image of a lifeless body of water. It is meant to be a commentary on the effects of pesticides on our natural resources. Quite literally, fish will be poisoned, the water contaminated, therefore contaminating animals drinking from it as well. The term silent, therefore , is another way to say lifeless.

It is called "Silent Spring" because pesticides and other chemically altering substances could very well kill all the insects and other life forms hat bring songs of life to the planet.  In Carson's vision, if the rate of chemical contamination continues, we would be faced with a silent world.

Silent Spring was such an important book because it raised awareness of the damage that the large-scale use of pesticides (and human activities more broadly) were doing to the environment. Carson's highest-profile target in the book was DDT, a pesticide that had the unfortunate effect of killing birds as well.  By drawing attention to this problem (and highlighting its potential effects on humans as well) Carson achieved tangible results. The use of DDT was banned in the United States, along with several other pesticides. But the book is often seen to have been a crucial spark for an emerging environmentalist movement, one which itself confronted the effects of unregulated industry on the environment. This movement culminated with federal action, as President Richard Nixon signed the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as Clean Air and Clear Water acts into existence in the early 1970s. In the words of one author, "EPA [the federal Environmental Protection Agency] today may be said without exaggeration to be the extended shadow of Rachel Carson." Many Americans, chastened and fearful of the effects of pollution, and skeptical of the willingness of corporate industries to "self-regulate" pressured the federal government into action, and Silent Spring is often seen as a major factor in building momentum for this movement. 

With the kinds of environmental abuses and neglect that was taking place in the 1950s and 60s, it was inevitable that a green movement of some sort would start, just as in the 1850s, it was inevitable that an abolition movement would grow.  In that time period, the book Uncle Tom's Cabin sold hundreds of thousands of copies and changed minds, increasing the size and momentum of the anti-slavery movement.

Silent Springdid something similar.  It took a fledgling movement and an unknown debate topic and brought it into specific relief.  It made it into a national discussion, and there were magazine and journal and scientific and political responses to it.

Did it change history?  Yes it did.  Just not all by itself.  The car was already running, her book just stepped on the gas.

In my opinion, this book kind of started the environmental movement that is such a big part of the American political and social scene today.  The book did help get DDT banned, but I think it was much more important than that.

The environment was not really seen as an important topic before the book was published.  Since then, it has become one of the most important issues.  Nowadays, you have people buying the spirally light bulbs and hybrid cars.  You also have a huge conservative backlash against environmentalism.

So, to me, the book helped cause the green movement and the backlash against it that has made green issues part of our current "culture wars."

The biggest change that came about as a result of Carson's book, and one of the reasons that the work is still as popular as it is today, is that it generated an awareness of the problems that we are causing to the environment through the use of pesticides such as DDT. The thing bout her work is that, although it was written in the 1960s, we still are facing many of the same environmental issues that she forewarned us of. In one section, she paints an image of an imaginary town where birds once sang and children played that is now dead and lifeless, the people and animals sickening and dying, all because of a white powder that settled over the area. This white powder was DDT (a pesticide) but it can easily be any pollutant man creates. Carson's work is pivotal because it made the general public more aware of the damage it was causing to the environment and the ramifications of that damage on the future.

It is rather difficult to make the argument that Rachel Carson's book in fact changed American History.  It has served as a reference text for many folks that are currently working to change policy and practices in the United States to be more "green" or environmentally friendly.  You could argue that it played a role in stopping the use of DDT as a pesticide, but farmers and others still use tons of chemicals that are likely harmful in many ways so it hasn't eliminated or even seriously impeded the use of various chemicals all over the country.

Perhaps one could argue that its popularity (limited though it was) was enough to raise questions in the mind of many who read it and hopefully led to positive changes.  But it is very difficult to connect a book (any book really) to specific and definite changes in history.

It is very fitting that this particular question is asked during the 40th anniversary of Earth Day this Thursday.  Carson's work helped to initiate the environmental awareness movement that has been an integral part of America for the last forty years.  Carson was ahead of her time in her assertion that there is a natural link between ecosystems and that there is a balance in which different organisms play roles in this web of interdependence.  Human beings cannot presume any sort of separate condition or role outside of this context, but rather must seek to find solutions within it and ones that help to enhance the delicate balance of llfe.  Carson's work is a landmark of the American environmental movement and a way of thought that is highlighted in the modern setting, but one that acquires greater meaning and significance this week.

I would add to the answers above that because Carson's work eventually led to an almost complete global banof DDT's use, we are still effected by it today.  While Silent Spring obviouslybrought attention to environmental issues, it also demonstrates how powerful environmental agencies can become.  For example, because DDT is banned, the U.S. which sends a tremendous amount of aid to African each year to try to prevent malaria cannot encourage or provide funding for the use of DDT sprays which are far more effective at preventing malaria than the flimsy nets that we offer impoverished Africans instead.  Since Carson's book was first published, several studies have shown that far more people die of malaria than from DDT-related issues (in fact, it has been difficult to prove that any die from DDT). 

In the midst of today's plethora of environmental books and articles, Carson's Spring is still undeniably pivotal; unfortunately, it seems that many authors get away with presenting junk science which can actually end up harming more humans than their habitats.

The biggest thing that Carson did with regard to effecting change was to generate popular awareness for environmental issues. The most compelling reason for this as an argument for the text is the fact that everything she wrote about in the 1960s is still an issue today. Pesticides have come under more stringent regulations and both individuals and corporations have become more aware of the dangers of pesticide use, however, we as a society are still causing damage to the environment daily. The Kyoto protocol represents an international effort to become more environmentally aware, but not all countries have signed it. The issues are still present and the threats that Carson writes about have not gone away; however, because we are more aware of them on a worldwide scale, we stand a much better chance of doing something about them.

The book Silent Spring was written by Rachel Carson and was published in 1962.  People usually give the book and its author credit for starting the environmental conservation movement that is so strong today.

The book was not about all environmental issues.  Instead, it was about the bad effects of the pesticide DDT on birds.  When people read the book, they put enough pressure on the government to do something that DDT was banned in the US some years later.

This is said to have started the environmental movement, which then spread to getting involved in other issues.