Based on Professor Davis' twenty-five years of experience in environmental politics, this text incorporates examples of biology, chemistry, engineering, and law to show how these disciplines influence political and administrative decision making. Within each chapter, four political science theoretical approaches--mass movements, interest groups, political parties, and governmental procedures--are applied to the issue at hand, because no one theory is satisfactory for all aspects. Every chapter begins with a brief historical background that ties historical, political, and spiritual aspects to the environmental policy being examined. Then, by integrating practical knowledge with scientific and political views, American Environmental Politics investigates the pollution and destruction of clean air, land, and water. Some of the notable people studied are Geneveive Gillette, Rachel Carson, Lois Gibbs, Senator Edmund Muskie, Aldo Leopold, and Anne Gorsuch.