Discussion Questions for Silent Spring

Antique “Underwood 5” upright typewriter, believed to have been used by Rachel Carson to type her field notes during visits to National Wildlife Refuges. Rachel Carson archival treasures are found at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

This April, we shared Silent Spring by Rachel Carson as our quarterly selection for this Spring on its 60th anniversary year of publication! We have written a list of discussion questions for you to think through as you read along with us and will be talking about a few of these questions in depth on our upcoming Book Discussion via Zoom on Thursday, May 19th from 3–4 PM ET. Use this Meeting ID: 160 497 5982 and Passcode: b$Tr9E+6R% to join. Feel free to also use these questions as a springboard for discussions with your friends, colleagues, or local book club.

1. In our first Wild Read of Silent Spring, Carson biographer William Souder acting as a moderator asked “Can there ever be another book like Silent Spring?” Do you think there can be, or has been?
2. What was your experience reading Silent Spring, as it was published more than half a century ago?
3. What do you think Rachel Carson would write about if she was living in 2022?
4. Carson’s description of pesticide application suggests that ethical issues are involved in the use of toxins as well as technical problems of environmental management. What ethical or moral concern is Carson worried about? Do you share her view?
5. Carson uses the term “ecology” on pg. 189 to describe “the web of life –or death…” What role does this concept play in her writing?

Brought to you by the USFWS Library, America’s Wild Read is a virtual book club where we aim to inspire you to connect with the outdoors and nature through literature. We hope you will read along with us as we feature various conservation books every quarter — contemporary, traditional, new, and classic.