Circulating Silence. The Reaction to Rachel Carson’s Book Silent Spring (1962) in Scandinavian Gardening Magazines

Abstract

This article examines the reception of Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in Scandinavian family gardening magazines. In Sweden, Norway and Denmark, family gardening associations were broad organisations with significant social impact. They were the most important arenas for transfer of scientific knowledge and values on gardening, linking plant protection experts, producers and sellers of gardening chemicals, horticultural advisors and the general public. Thus, these associations and their magazines influenced many social groups that had common interests in non-commercial gardening as part of their everyday life. In practice, these family gardening magazines were heavily dependent on the income from garden chemicals advertisements. Consequently, their editorial policies and plant protection technical advice were deeply rooted in the post-war ideals of chemical agriculture and horticulture. These ideals were pursued and applied everywhere—even into the tiniest allotment and family garden. Scandinavian countries and their gardening associations have many similarities and some differences between them. This makes them an interesting case for comparison. The gardening magazines of Sweden, Norway and Denmark show quite a few similarities in the way they first pretended to ignore Carson while spending much effort countering the possible effects of her message, and in the way they retrospectively engaged with her book. There are, however, quite interesting differences in the way the national garden associations, their magazine editors and the magazines’ pesticide experts handled the publicity generated by Silent Spring on the harmfulness of garden chemicals.

Keywords

• rachel carson
• gardening
• pesticides
• ddt
• gardening associations