Our Land, Ourselves: Readings on People and Place [Paperback]

Peter Forbes (Editor), Ann Ambrecht Forbes (Editor), Helen Whybrow (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Trust for Public Land (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967280605
• ISBN-13: 978-0967280608
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #973,665 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Here's a link to a conversation about how I came to write Thin Places: http://www.thejcconline.com/portrait-of-a-cultural-explorer-ann-armbrecht-interview/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exceptional Collection of Conservation Essays, May 19, 2000

By 

John Burrows - See all my reviews

This review is from: Our Land, Ourselves: Readings on People and Place (Paperback)

This is an excellent collection of contemporary and classic essays dealing with people's sense of place, the vernacular landscape, perception of the environment and wilderness, and the meaning of community. The book began initially as an effort by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) to better comprehend the core social values imbedded in its land conservation mission and how to better apply these to strengthening communities (natural, social, and cultural) and to promote and foster a more healthy, sustainable natural world. After exploring these issues, TPL decided that there would be great value in including the greater community in its discussion of these issues and subsequently published this collection as a means to that end. Included our writing by Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Wallace Stegner, Harry S. Truman, Gary Snyder, Annie Dillard, Linda Hogan, James Howard Kunstler, John Steinbeck, Mary Oliver, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Bill McKibben, to name only a few.

As a professional conservationist, I was familiar with the themes and issues raised in this book, but had not read many of these essays beforehand. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest as to why we should preserve open space, wilderness, parks, and wetlands and anyone curious at to how individual lives and communities relate to the natural world; the message is so rarely delivered as eloquently and effectively