This first book-length study of rhetoric and environmental politics calls for an end to the present oversimplified conflict between economic and evolutionary progress and suggests instead a continuum embracing the full range of human views of nature.

The authors use a systematic analysis of well-known works of nonfiction literature (by such authors as Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, Barry Commoner, and Herman Daly) long neglected by literary, rhetorical, and cultural critics, as well as journalistic reports and stories, industry and activist polemics, government documents, textbooks, technical literature, and novels to show that rhetoric centered on the established dichotomy gives rise to ecospeak, which paralyzes instead of informing action.