CHOICE OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE 2009
...the first book-length study in English of the ideas, aims, and actions of conservationists in West Germany between 1945 and 1975, placing conservation in the mainstream of German political and cultural history...This fully researched and readable narrative, interspersed with three illustrative case studies, provides an excellent account of conservation in West Germany. * Choice
Chaney provides a valuable bridge between previous studies of conservation policy in the first half of the twentieth century, including the Third Reich,...and provides an important account of the rebirth of the postwar conservation movement that led to the greening of German politics. * German Politics & Society
Chaney's study is one of the best recent works on German conservation. In great detail it traces the gradual development of the movement, attending closely to subtle but fundamental changes in rhetoric... Her book is essential reading for anyone interested in the roots of contemporary environmentalism, the evolution of protest movements, and the steady democratization of postwar German society. * Central European History
This well-structured study of conservation during the miracle years is a concise, readable, and thematically profound analysis of trends in the Federal Republic of Germany. * Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, London
Chaney's overview of the West German conservation movement is to be recommended, not least because it is the first of its kind; no one who is dealing with this topic can afford to ignore it. * Neue Politische Literatur
Chaney's book is a welcome addition to the scholarship on German environmental history. The first English-language study of German conservation after World War II, her work is also a model of painstaking research and careful argument. It will appeal to students of German history and global environmental history for years to come. * H-German
What makes Chaney's study stand out from other studies of its kind is its focus on the backgrounds and philosophies of key players in the various national and regional conservation organizations as they navigated the early years of West German democracy. * German Studies Review