A Sand County Almanac
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| Aldo Leopold | |
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| Author | Aldo Leopold |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Ecology, Environmentalism |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Publication date | 1949 |
| Pages | 240 pp |
| ISBN | 0-19-500777-8 |
A Sand County Almanac is a 1949 non-fiction book written by American ecologist and environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Describing the land around Leopold's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin and his thoughts on developing a "land ethic," it was edited and published by his son, Luna, a year after Leopold's death from a heart attack. The collection of essays is considered to be a landmark book in the American conservation movement.
The book has had over two million copies printed and has been translated into nine languages.[1] It has informed and changed the environmental movement and stimulated a widespread interest in ecology as a science. Google Scholar, for example, lists nearly 2700 citations of this book.
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[edit] Overview
A Sand County Almanac is a combination of natural history, scene painting with words, and philosophy. It is perhaps best known for the following quote, which defines his land ethic: "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise." The concept of a trophic cascade is put forth in the chapter "Thinking Like a Mountain", wherein Leopold realizes that killing a predator wolf carries serious implications for the rest of the ecosystem.[2]
In the original publishing, the book begins with the actual "Sand County Almanac," which is divided into twelve segments, one for each month. There are anecdotes and observations about flora and fauna reactions to the seasons as well as mentions of conservation topics.
The second section of the book, "Sketches Here and There," discusses a few other wildernesses in Canada, Mexico and the United States, and how conservation (or lack thereof) affects them.
The book ends with "A Land Ethic", in which Leopold delves into conservation in "The Ecological Conscience" section. He wrote: "Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land." Leopold felt it was generally agreed that more conservation education was needed; however quantity and content were up for debate. He believed that land is not a commodity to be possessed; rather, humans must have mutual respect for Earth in order not to destroy it. He also puts forth the idea that humans will never be free if they have no wild spaces in which to roam.
Leopold's home, Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm, was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
[edit] The book's importance and continuing influence
In a 1990 poll of the membership by the American Nature Study Society, A Sand County Almanac and Silent Spring stand alone as the two most venerated and impactful environmental books of the 20th century. [3] The book was little noticed when published but, during the environmental awakening of the 1970s, a paperback edition turned into a surprise bestseller. [4] It still sells about 40,000 copies a year.[5]
The book has had immense popular influence and has been described as: "one of the benchmark titles of the ecological movement"[6], "a major influence on American attitudes toward our natural environment"[7], "recognized as a classic piece of outdoor literature, rivalling Thoreau's Walden"[8].
The book has also had great influence on environmental thinkers: "along with Walden and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, one of the main intellectual underpinnings of environmentalism in America"[9], "Leopold’s essays set the tone for writing about conservation"[10]. Leopold, through his book, is cited as one of the founders of Deep Ecology.[11] The book has "attracted such overwhelming attention from environmental philosophers as a source of inspiration and ideas"[12]. Leopold himself has been described as: "a visionary who still influences American conservation policy"[13].
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Aldo Leopold Foundation's site on the Almanac
- ^ Leopold, Aldo Thinking Like a Mountain
- ^ "Silent Spring" and "A Sand County Almanac": The Two Most Significant Environmental Books of the 20th Century,Nature Study, v44 n2-3 p6-8 Feb 1991
- ^ Book review by Donella Meadows, director of the Sustainability Institute and an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=956
- ^ Book review http://web.mac.com/jaginsburg/germtales/Sand_County_Almanac.html
- ^ Blog http://bfgb.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/a-sand-county-almanac-by-aldo-leopold/
- ^ Nature Writing: The Tradition in English, Finch, Elder, p376
- ^ Reflections on A Sand County Almanac by Don H. Meredith http://www.donmeredith.ca/outdoorsmen/SandCounty.html
- ^ StoryLines midwest, David Long, http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:Vz__H-clAu4J:www.programminglibrarian.org/assets/files/dp/sand_county.pdf+%22a+sand+county+almanac%22+%22silent+spring%22&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
- ^ Blog http://bfgb.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/a-sand-county-almanac-by-aldo-leopold/
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ecology
- ^ Rachel Carson: Legacy and Challenge, Callicott and Back
- ^ Book review, http://forestry.about.com/cs/foresthistory1/gr/Aldo_asca.htm
[edit] Further reading
- Knight, Richard L. and Suzanne Riedel. 2002. Aldo Leopold and the Ecological Conscience. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195149440.
