148 FRANK UEKÖTTER
is the inherent diversity of environmental concerns. How can one write
an environmental history of the green Germany when bird lovers clash
with renewable energy enthusiasts over wind power, when eco-farming
is under threat from the quest for biofuels, and when the burgeoning cli-
mate change movement is viewed with deep suspicion among advocates
of biodiversity? The unity of the environmental movement has always
been more myth than reality, and several observers have been tempted
to throw in the towel. As Anthony Giddens put it, “Strictly speaking, of
course, there is no green movement—rather, there is a diverse range of
positions, perspectives and recipes for action.”^1
For a while, environmental historians sought to marshal this diversity
by merging it into a general narrative of phenomenal growth. Accord-
ing to these accounts, Western societies fi nally woke up around 1970—a
bit late, but hopefully not too late—and the promise of environmental-
ism gradually pushed doubts and resistance to the margins.^2 The end of
socialist rule in Eastern Europe was swiftly incorporated into this narra-
tive: it was the collapse of an even more destructive alternative to West-
ern capitalism, if not an act of ecocide, for socialism was doomed to fail
on environmental terms as well. But triumphant narratives of the irre-
sistible rise of environmentalism have come to ring hollow in the twenty-
fi rst century: the green happy ending of history is far less certain than
conventional wisdom had it in the 1970s and 1980s. Simple teleological
narratives clash with a reality where environmental sustainability is still
very much elusive. Compared with the global triumph of neoliberalism,
another cause that was ascendant in the 1970s, emphatic proclamations
of an “age of ecology” look dubious at best.^3 It is entirely plausible that
a few decades from now, scholars will view 1970s environmentalism as
an ephemeral mood swing in complacent affl uent societies of the West.
All of this speaks in favor of a circumspect approach that looks at dif-
ferent issues and explores a multitude of perspectives. A contemporary
history of the environment looks very diff erent depending on one’s point
of view: should we write from an urban or a rural perspective, against the
background of the United States or the Global South—and what about the
perspective of battery-cage chickens in solitary confi nement? The state
of research also calls for a tentative approach, as the gaps in our litera-
ture are still legion. The number of case studies is increasing, but few
scholars have tried to identify running themes or sought to connect ex-
periences on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It is a long way from isolated
case studies to a complete picture, but we may never move beyond a set
of fragments if we do not off er some ideas on how it might all fi t together.
That is what this essay attempts to do.