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emjay796's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
"Ability to see the cultural value of wilderness boils down, in the last analysis, to a question of intellectual humility."
A landmark work and the foundation of all meaningful discussion of wilderness, conservation, environmentalism, and land ethic for decades afterwards—if you can read A Sand County Almanac and not be changed, I don't really know what to say.
Leopold's voice is bright, clever, and filled with a delightful mix of wit and poetry. In Almanac, he recognizes a profound shift in the way mid-century Americans understood being human, and he shows us a way to return home. Seventy years later, I hope we can still find it.
"We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world."
A landmark work and the foundation of all meaningful discussion of wilderness, conservation, environmentalism, and land ethic for decades afterwards—if you can read A Sand County Almanac and not be changed, I don't really know what to say.
Leopold's voice is bright, clever, and filled with a delightful mix of wit and poetry. In Almanac, he recognizes a profound shift in the way mid-century Americans understood being human, and he shows us a way to return home. Seventy years later, I hope we can still find it.
"We all strive for safety, prosperity, comfort, long life, and dullness. The deer strives with his supple legs, the cowman with trap and poison, the statesman with pen, the most of us with machines, votes, and dollars, but it all comes to the same thing: peace in our time. A measure of success in this is all well enough, and perhaps is a requisite to objective thinking, but too much safety seems to yield only danger in the long run. Perhaps this is behind Thoreau's dictum: In wildness is the salvation of the world."
emilyforrer's review
3.5
Sometimes the most environmentally friendly person is the hunter or the person wielding the axe. Some lovely imagery in here, and Iiked reading about how much he respected the land he lived on.
graywacke's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
A naturalist classic. It opens with a long, sustained time track through a year on the author's Wisconsin property. The next sections, Sketches, lacks the continuous wholeness of the Almanac section, but has some poetic moments. (Especially the last one - on the western grebe in Manitoba.) Then he follows up with a naturalist's manifesto, circa 1949. He's writing to naturalists and wildlife experts. He's pleading for a naturalist morality, for us not to leave everything up to the government, for a look broader than the money-first landowners. He's in tune with hunters, but not comfortable with the destruction wrought in the name of tourism - especially roads. And he takes time to think about purity vs the artificially created sporting environments where fish or other animals are supplied by stock. He foresees a lot that has actually happened, and actually I think things are worse than he presents. It wasn't, however, anything that was uniquely striking. Common sense, to a degree, if a common sense in tune with experience.
alreadyemily's review
4.0
I loved the Sand County Almanac part (a years worth of monthly vistas of life on the sand counties) and the Sketches Here and There part as well (similarly lovely stories of other areas). I struggled a bit with the land ethics sections towards the end. Some of the language doesn't hold up from the 40s. The descriptions of the current state of things and trends in conservationism are equally old and it's hard to judge how relevant they still are... likely still just as true but still, I'd love to see an edition with a forward/epilogue/addendum that can help bridge that gap.
smudger421's review
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Aldo Leopold has a deep understanding of natural relationships. His wisdom is a boon to any education in environmental stewardship. I hope to read this book every fee years to glean a bit more each time.
cu00's review
4.0
A lyrical examination of a life close to nature. For me an experience both nostalgic and beautiful.
canoe_god's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
had to read for class
watson27's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
5.0
This book is a love letter to our land. I’ve never considered nature as intentionally as this author has, but reading this book I felt an appreciation for things in nature I had never cared to notice.