ABSTRACT
Introduction Environmentalism is generally seen as a comparatively recent phenomenon, with most accounts of its development beginning in the 1960s and 1970s. Yet a historical perspective can reveal that many of the environmental concerns experienced today Eire hardly new, as cem be demonstrated by examining reactions to similEu issues in Britsiin between 1919 and 1949. This was a period of structurEd chEinge which had a profound effect on the environment smd attitudes towards it, eliciting responses from Eill sectors of society. Whether such responses could be described as environmentEilism, as it is understood in its contemporEiry sense, is open to question since it would be misleading to project current worldviews onto actors operating within different historical circumstEuices. However, such a focus csm allow a fresh interpretation and demonstrate striking parEillels between environmentEd concern in the past smd that of the present.
