"As Mr. Udall's vivid narrative makes clear, the race between education and erosion, between wisdom and waste, has not run its course. . . . The nation's battle to preserve the common estate is far from won."-President John F. Kennedy, from the introduction. In his best-selling 1963 book, The Quiet Crisis, Stewart Udall warned of the dangers of pollution and threats to America's natural resources, calling for a nationwide "land conscience" to conserve the nation's wild places. Along with Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, The Quiet Crisis is credited with triggering the modern environmental movement in America.
