Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T14:32:43.239Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

10 - The New Ecology of Power: Julian and Aldous Huxley in the Cold War Era

from PART III - ENVIRONMENTALISMS

J. R. McNeill
Affiliation:
Georgetown University, Washington DC
Corinna R. Unger
Affiliation:
German Historical Institute, Washington DC
Get access

Summary

In the historiography of the Cold War era, it has long been standard to examine the contentious period following 1945 primarily within the framework of such hard-power narratives as the advent of nuclear weaponry, the strategic division of Europe, and the catalog of proxy conflicts between the Eastern and Western blocs throughout the postcolonial world. Some aspects of soft power, such as cultural prestige and economic largesse, have steadily gained prominence in recent decades. However, in assessing the impact of the biologist Julian Huxley and the novelist Aldous Huxley on the emergence of a global environmentalist movement during the Cold War era, it is necessary to consider a third variety of power, first identified by the economist Kenneth Boulding as “integrative power,” the history of which is interwoven with, though distinct from, the strategic and economic aspirations of empires and nations states. In defining and distinguishing integrative power, Akira Iriye writes: “Destructive power entails the use or the threat of force to achieve one's objectives. Productive power works through exchange and economic activity. Integrative power is social and expressed through mutual affection.” As public intellectuals with a global audience, both of the Huxley brothers tended to frame their views on the social and political questions of the Cold War era in the integrative language of ecology. Their common tendency to employ metaphors and terms from the life sciences while generally eschewing the contemporary vocabulary of communism and anticommunism may be one of the factors that rendered their work less than au courant amid the ideologically charged culture wars of the mid- to late-twentieth century.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×