Our attitudes towards nature' and the countryside are fickle. The conservation movement, despite enjoying its highest membership ever, has achieved only limited success over the last one hundred years of campaigning. Can conservationists now shake off their insular, disunited and negative image so as to gain the influence that the size of their movement warrants?
A History of Nature Conservation in Britain traces the rise of the conservation movement from its beginnings in Victorian coffee houses to today's societies with their membership numbering in the millions. The first...