The environment has not always been protected by law. It was not until the middle of the 20th century that `the environment¿ came to be understood as an entity in need of special care, and the law-politics duo firmly fixed its focus on this issue. In this book Wickham and Goodie tell the story of how law and politics first came upon the environment as an object in need of special attention. They outline the unlikely intersection of aesthetics and science that made `the environment¿ into the matter of great concern it is today. will be of great interest to students, teachers, and researchers of environmental law, socio-legal studies, environmental studies, and political theory.