Rachel Carson and the Power of Queer Love

Maxwell (political science and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, Boston Univ.; Insurgent Truth: Chelsea Manning and the Politics of Outsider Truth-Telling) presents a compelling argument about noted environmentalist Rachel Carson’s romantic love for her friend and neighbor Dorothy Freeman and its influence on her masterpiece Silent Spring. Maxwell examines the letters between Carson and Freeman and places their love in conversation with other queer, anti-racist, and environmental theorists. The book argues that Carson’s queer relationship was fundamentally anti-capitalist and deeply influenced Carson’s desire and ability to craft Silent Spring into the political phenomenon that it became. It further offers a moving argument for the ways in which queer relationships embody opposition to the modern capitalist heteronormative ideal, while centering Carson and Freeman’s intimate letters as its premier example.