BIOREGIONALISM BIBLIOGRAPHY / READING LIST
(Prepared By Fred Cervin)
Doug Aberley, “Interpreting Bioregionalism: A Story from Many Voices,” an excellent history of the movement, in Bioregionalism, ed. Michael Vincent McGinnis, Routledge, 1999.
Peter Berg, ed., Reinhabiting a Separate Country: A Bioregional Anthology of Northern California, Planet Drum Foundation, 1978. Early collection of essays.
Peter Berg, various articles. Go to www.planetdrum.org, click on “library.” See especially “Amble toward Continent Congress.” A bit hard to read, but potent. Peter Berg is the most important founder and apostle of bioregionalism.
Ernest Callenbach, Ecology: A Pocket Guide, California, 1998.
Edward Goldsmith, The Way: An Ecological World-view, Shambala, 1993. The complete account. Not about bioregionalism as such, but Goldsmith argues that some kind of return to village life and local control is implied in a thought-out ecological point of view.
Freeman House, Totem Salmon: Life Lessons from Another Species, Beacon Press, 1999.
Describes how a Northcoast California community of loggers, hippies, environmentalists and bureaucrats came together to work for the preservation of one of the last wild salmon rivers.
An important book on ecological restoration, a key component of bioregionalism.
Ursula LeGuin, Always Coming Home, California, 1985. A bioregional novel. Set in the distant future after the world has gone through a series of terrible wars and environmental disasters, the book imagines in detail a way of life that is a kind of post-industrial tribalism.
Harry Middleton, The Earth Is Enough, Pruett, 1996. Novel. The title says it all. Great book!
Stephanie Mills, In Service of the Wild: Restoring and Reinhabiting Damaged Land, Beacon Press, 1995. Sustainable lifestyle in a damaged world.
Andruss, Plant, Plant and Wright, ed., Home: A Bioregional Reader, introduction by Stephanie Mills, New Society, 1990. A basic collection.
Kirkpatrick Sale, Dwellers in the Land: The Bioregional Vision, Sierra Club Books, 1985.
Kirkpatrick Sale,
Mother of All: An Introduction to Bioregionalism, E. F. Schumacher Society pamphlet series, 1983; also available online at
www.smallisbeautiful.org.
Leslie Marmon Silko, Almanac of the Dead, Simon & Schuster, 1991. This long, surrealistic novel exposes the terrible disconnection of modern society from the natural world and from all sense of place, from a Native American point of view. Sardonic humor.
Robert L. Thayer,
Lifeplace: Bioregional Thought and Practice, California, 2003. A practical nuts and bolts handbook, drawing on the author’s extensive experience implementing bioregional principles in the Central Valley of California.
What a Way to Go, 2007, movie. After a dizzying ride through the insanity of our present situation as modern people, Tim Bennett and Sally Erickson recommend that we “build a boat.” The only real lifeboat will be the local, face-to-face community of friends. “We need to be talking to one another” about the failure of “progress” and the earth-based story that will take its place.
http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com