{"id":19073,"date":"2024-07-01T15:02:51","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T19:02:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=19073"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:12:19","slug":"prose-for-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/prose-for-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Prose for the Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Don’t it always seem to go, that you don\u2019t know what you got \u2019till it\u2019s gone \/ They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iconic lyrics from Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cBig Yellow Taxi,\u201d which was released in April 1970\u2014the same month that the first Earth Day Celebration was held\u2014captured the angst and lament many artists and intellectuals were feeling about the existential threats facing the planet during the Long Sixties (1960\u20131973), making it one of the first environmental anthems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his talk \u201cMercy Mercy Me (The Ecology): Long Sixties Protest Music and the Earth Day Revolution,\u201d New York Times best-selling author and acclaimed presidential historian Douglas Brinkley highlighted music\u2019s integral and enduring role in the environmental movement in the U.S. He explained that while the first two waves of environmental movements in the U.S. were ushered in under presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the third grew out of a cultural movement sparked largely by writers and artists, such as Mitchell, after Rachel Carson\u2019s anti-DDT book, \u201cSilent Spring,\u201d galvanized a generation upon its release in 1962.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuddenly the groundswell of saving the environment kicked in and music\u2014and artists\u2014became a huge part,\u201d Brinkley said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brinkley\u2019s talk, held in April, was the inaugural President\u2019s Lecture on Music History and Contemporary America. Hosted by the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music, the new series \u201cshowcases the Center\u2019s mission to educate and inspire future generations to understand the diverse influences in American music, and appreciate its power as a force for change,\u201d according to Monmouth University President and BSACAM Board of Directors Chair Patrick F. Leahy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Watch Brinkley\u2019s full lecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Douglas Brinkley lecture examines how protest music helped shape the environmental movement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":19076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"\"\"","catString":"Currents","issue":"Spring\/Summer 2024","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22127,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19073\/revisions\/22127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}