Saving Animals and the Land: Uniting the American Animal Rights and Environmental Movements of the Late Twentieth Century

Author

Kelsey Schmidt, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

8-1-2017

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

History

First Advisor

Carr, Kay

Abstract

The following research explores the growing stability of the relationship between the modern American animal rights and environmental movements in the aftermath of the 1960s counterculture. The movements have traditionally been considered by scholars in their separate contexts, because the movements had a tenuous and inconsistent relationship throughout their early histories. While the separate consideration of the movements may have been more appropriate for research prior to the 1960s, the movements became increasingly intertwined through various influences of the counterculture. The counterculture introduced new philosophies, utilitarianism and deep ecology, to the movements that united them through their mutual distaste for anthropocentrism and industrialization. The counterculture also provided animal rights and environmental advocates with alternative lifestyles with which to promote their goals and affect real change. The movements began to most clearly unite in their mutual campaigns against the intensive animal farming industry, more controversially and widely known as “factory farming.” Both movements utilized the philosophies introduced to their movements to argue against the moral ills of the industry. Hence, they identified a need to actively combat the effects of the meat industry and have since advocated a widespread adoption of the vegetarian lifestyle among the American public.