In this commentary piece, the six authors attempt to “reboot” or reinstitute a concept close to the heart of the Moderns, namely the assumption that the traditional concept of nature, as developed through modern European history, would no longer be adequate to a future beset by environmental crises.

Dave Foreman’s Books of the Big Outside is a catalog of books, poetry, music, and material pertaining to what he calls the “Big Outside,” compiled for “wilderness defenders.”

This collection contributes a sustained analysis of the beginning of major Canadian environmental debates between the 1960s and 1980s, and examines a range of issues related to broad environmental concerns, topics which emerged as key concerns in the context of Cold War military investments and experiments, the oil crisis of the 1970s, debates over gendered roles, and the increasing attention to urban pollution and pesticide use.