Charting the history of contemporary philosophical and religious beliefs regarding nature, Roderick Nash focuses primarily on changing attitudes toward nature in the United States. His work is the first comprehensive history of the concept that nature has rights and that American liberalism has, in effect, been extended to the nonhuman world.
Tracing the history of ethical extension over two thousand years, this book focuses on the American experience where natural rights ideology expanded to encompass the rights of nature. It deals primarily with intellectual history, but also considers groups that have put their ideas into action.
