Blood,Not Soil

Abstract

The antigreen backlash that began in the 1990s has constantly advanced charges of misanthropic extremism against ecologists, and these charges are dramatically illustrated by claims, most notably drawn from Anna Bramwell’s work, of historical or thematic linkage between ecologism and National Socialism. The author analyses Bramwell’s work both historically and systematically, arguing first that her claims of association between ecologism and Nazism are historically flawed, and second, that her conceptual treatment fails to take into account the central motivational roles of Social Darwinism and absolutist purity in National Socialism. These factors effectively divorce green thought about nature from Nazi connection. The author concludes that no clear historical or necessary conceptual link between ecologism and Nazism has been successfully demonstrated by Bramwell and the backlash campaigners, but that greens should nonetheless eschew dangerous purity notions if possible.