The reading list has been compiled by the project co-directors, in consultation with faculty and other participants. The syllabus provides an example of the wealth of material than can be taught, recognizing that changes may be made as books and articles appear. While it seem there is a great deal of reading, the “Main Readings” below should be completed beforehand, allowing ample time for other reading and research.

Main Readings: These texts, all available in paperback, should be read prior to the institute, as they provide a strong introduction to the institute’s four themes, and they will be referred to throughout the month.

• Callicott, J. Baird, ed. Companion to A Sand County Almanac. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987. Callicott’s anthology is one of the earliest examinations of Leopold’s book from an interdisciplinary perspective – biography, history, ethics, philosophy, and literature.
• Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac with Essays on Conservation from Round River. New York: Ballantine Books, 1966. This title also includes essays from Leopold’s “Round River” collection. It is one of the most popular editions available.
• Meine, Curt. Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. Although several other biographies have appeared in the last few years, Meine’s book remains the authoritative study of Leopold’s life and writing.
• Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind, 4th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. Nash’s study of attitudes toward land, from American Indian beliefs to chaos theory, remains a classic in environmental history. The book includes a chapter on Leopold, as well as voices critical of him.

Secondary Readings: These titles are referred to during the institute and should be purchased by participants before arriving in Prescott. Participants will receive the final syllabus a month before the institute, so they may begin these selections beforehand, but there will be time in Prescott to complete the readings (not all chapters of all books are required).

• Brown, David, and Neil Carmony. Aldo Leopold’s Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990. This collection of Leopold’s early essays provides readers a sense of how his ideas evolved during his nearly 40-year career.
• Callicott, J. Baird. In Defense of the Land Ethic: Essays in Environmental Philosophy. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989. Here Callicott pulls together many of his essays that deal with the philosophical and ethical questions raised in A Sand County Almanac. Not all articles are about Leopold specifically, but the topics discussed relate directly to his Land Ethic.
• Flader, Susan. Thinking Like a Mountain: Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude Toward Deer, Wolves, and Forests. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1974. Flader’s is one of the earliest and best surveys of Leopold’s ethical doctrine – a classic in the field.
• Flader, Susan and J. Baird Callicott, eds. The River of the Mother of God and Other Essays by Aldo Leopold, University of Wisconsin Press, 1991. Edited by two of the institute's faculty, this collection draws from more than 500 essays and articles that Leopold published - a perfect complement to A Sand County Almanac. Flader and Callicott also provide important contexts for the essays.
• Mechant, Carolyn. American Environmental History: An Introduction. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. This new history complements Nash’s book above, while providing more resources and an extensive bibliography.
• Newton, Julianne. Aldo Leopold’s Odyssey. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 2006. Newton’s recent study examines the sources that influenced Leopold’s thought – putting his ecology in perspective.
• Worster, Donald. Nature’s Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas, 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Worster has written many notable books in environmental history; this one is a collection of his articles that survey the topic from pre-history to Leopold.

Prepared Readings: An online reader prepared by the co-directors, with assistance from faculty, includes selec¬tions from works that amplify the historical, philosophical, scientific, and cultural backgrounds of A Sand County Almanac. The readings present views along the spectrum, not only those that agree with Leopold. Most are nonfiction, a few fiction or poetry. Final choices are still being determined, but an indication of what each reading is meant to convey is provided here. Please notify us if you have additional recommendations.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart (1959). African culture and land values.
Allen, Paula Gunn. “The Sacred Hoop.” Native American attitudes toward the land.
Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me, Ultima (1972). Hispanic heritage and sense of place.
Aristotle. The Poetics (335 BCE). Aristotle’s conception of aesthetics.
Austin, Mary. Land of Little Rain (1903). Ecology of the desert and the human role.
Bacon, Francis. The Meditations (1597). Human control of nature.
Bentham, Jeremy. Principles of Morals and Legislation (1781). Utilitarianism.
Bible. Genesis. The creation story, humankind’s place in nature.
Burke, Edmund. The Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1764). Views on aesthetics.
Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring (1962). Humans’ responsibility toward nature; holism, ecology.
Cather, Willa. Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927). Coming to terms with one’s place.
Cooper, James Fennimore. The Pioneers (1823). Nature in early American literature.
Darwin, Charles. Origin of Species (1859) & Descent of Man (1871). Adaptation, selection, holism.
Descarte, Rene. The Meditations (1641). The human-nature split.
Elton, Charles. Animal Ecology (1927). Introduction to ecological systems.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Nature (1836). Transcendentalism and nature’s purposes.
Turner, F.J. “Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893). Effect of land on culture.
Hardin, Garrett. “Tragedy of the Commons” (1968). Land and human ethics.
Hume, David. Treatise of Human Nature (1739). Is/Ought dichotomy, natural sympathy.
Iroquois Confederacy Constitution (c. 15th century). Indigenous notions of sustainability.
Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason (1781). Bridging the human-nature divide.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching (c. 3rd century BCE). Eastern holism.
Lewis, Sinclair. Babbitt (1922). Progress in early 20th-century America.
Locke, John. Two Treatises of Government (1689). Responsibility to community; democracy.
Marsh, George. Man and Nature (1864). Inexhaustibility of wilderness.
Masumoto, David Mas. Epitaph for a Peach (1996). The garden ethic in practice.
Muir, John. Mountains of California (1894). Nature as god; a call for preservation.
Nash, Roderick. The Rights of Nature (1989). Expansion and evolution of ethics.
Ouspensky, P.D. Tertium Organum: The Third Canon of Thought (1911). Holistic metaphysics.
Passmore, John. Man’s Responsibility for Nature (1974). The anti-Leopold ethic.
Pinchot, Gifford. Breaking New Ground (1947). The wise-use proposal.
Pope, Alexander. Essay on Man (1733). Humans part of a whole.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacque. The Social Contract (1762). The natural man.
Schweitzer, Albert. Philosophy of Civilization: Civilization and Ethics (1923). Moral humanism.
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (1977). Nature’s oneness becomes apparent.
Smith, Adam. Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) & Wealth of Nations (1776). Economics and values.
Spinoza, Baruch. The Ethics (1677). Pantheism.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden (1854). Beyond Transcendentalism.
White, Lynn. “Historical Roots of our Ecological Crises” (1967). Religion and nature.
Wilson, E.O. Biophilia (1984). The Land Ethic post-Leopold.
Wordsworth, William. “Tintern Abbey” (1798). Romanticism and human-land relationships.

Also see: Online Readings