Mark H. Lytle

Bard College where I taught history and environmental studies since 1975. encourages its faculty to have a high scholarly profile, while bringing their ideas into the classroom. That synergy helped me conceive both "America's Uncivil Wars" and "The Gentle Subversive." Indeed, I first wrote about Carson in my 60s book, though I got to know her writing in my course on American Environmental History. Several years ago, I was a "talking head" on the A&E Rachel Carson special aired on PBS. Of my other publications certainly "After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection," co-authored with my close friend Jim Davidson is my personal favorite. It has allowed me to think and write across a broad span of American history. In the sixth edition, I added a chapter on the Greensboro, North Carolina sit-ins, exploring the question of whether or not they were spontaneous as numerous historians once assumed.

"The All-Consuming Nation:Pursuing the American Dream Since World War II" (Oxford), brings together themes I've pursued in both my scholarship and teaching. I make the argument that of all the "isms" contending for hearts and minds around the globe--fascism, communism, socialism, capitalism and more--consumerism has been the most widely embraced. The failure to meet consumer desires contributed more to the collapse of the Soviet Union than did Ronald Reagan's arms buildup. President Obama faced the unenviable task of inspiring a consumer lead economic recovery that did not worsen the threat of global warming. For Donald Trump that was no dilemma since he treated the two greatest threats to our consumer democracy--climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic--as hoaxes. The All-Consuming Nation argues that the mass consumption economy of the Post-WW II era is unsustainable.