Uncommon Cents: Thoreau and the Nature of Business
By Robert M. Abbott
Henry David Thoreau is revered for his contributions to the American environmental movement, but his influence on business is less well known. The central argument of Uncommon Cents is that Thoreau was a uniquely synthetic thinker whose ideas about the nature of business are useful, perhaps even vital, for contemporary students and business leaders. Rob Abbott has painstakingly gathered excerpts from Thoreau’s key writings on The Nature of Business; Wealth and Well Being; Simplicity and Self-Reliance; and Leadership and placed them in a present-day context by highlighting what it is about each subject that is relevant for scholars and business leaders. As well, each chapter includes a commentary in which Abbott distills the chapter to its essence – a takeaway message to help the reader think and act differently. The book closes with Abbott’s own message on where business, and the study of business needs to go to measure up to both the standard and the spirit of what Thoreau passionately called for 150 years ago. At a time when the role of business in society is being fiercely debated, Uncommon Cents reminds us that the path to a more just, humane and caring world can be found in Thoreau’s good words. These words might yet help us see our world in new ways, with new eyes, and forge a new relationship with nature, and with each other.
2008
NATURE/LITERATURE/BUSINESS
US $17.95 / Canada $19.95
140 pages, paperback
ISBN: 978-0-9717468-2-4
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Healing Natures, Repairing Relationships: New Perspectives on Restoring Ecological Spaces and Consciousness
by Robert L. France (Editor)
Healing Natures, Repairing Relationships brings together a leading group of distinctive voices to explore ideas underlying the restoration of environmental and human integrity in what pioneer restorationist Aldo Leopold once called our damaged “world of wounds.” This emerging paradigm—referred to by the editor as “Restoration Design”—is defined as the process by which participants creatively develop physical and conceptual relationships to engage nature through the architectural transformation of their inhabited ecological space as well as their internal environments. In this collection of essays, restoration design is shown to be a comprehensive process involving elements of sociology, anthropology, philosophy, ecopsychology, environmental art, ecological science, and landscape architecture.
Presenting emerging perspectives on environmental restoration, this collection of essays by a leading group of environmental scholars combines theoretical discussion with practical approaches. Describing the variety of ways that humans can and should interact with nature, this multi-disciplinary work shares hands-on exercises for engaging urban communities to develop supportive relationships with their surrounding environment. These writings define the paradigm of “restoration design” and the ways that its disciplines and actions can provide humans with a new direction for interrelating with the world in the 21st century.
CONTRIBUTORS
Jill Brown, Tim Collins, Lane K. and Sarah A. Conn, Mark Dannenhauer, Robert France, David W. Kidner, Andrew Light, Stephanie Mills, Louise Mozingo, William R. Jordan III, Robert Ryan, Elizabeth V. Spelman, Alex Turner.
2008
ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION/ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
US $31.95 / Canada $35.95
255 pages, paperback
ISBN: 978-0-9717468-6-2
Wetlands of Mass Destruction: Ancient Presage for Contemporary Ecocide in Southern Iraq
by Robert L. France (Editor)
Edward L. Ochsenschlager (Foreword)
VOICES FROM THE PAST FOR THE SILENCED OF THE PRESENT: Although written thousands of years ago by ancient Mesopotamian scribes using reed styluses and clay tablets, some of the cuneiform inscriptions contained in these pages could very well be headlines from recent newspapers about the deliberate destruction by Saddam Hussein of the important ecological and unique cultural landscape of the southern Iraqi marshlands.
“He plotted evil, to devastate the land, to destroy the people”
“Not even a reed marsh was to be seen.”
“Revolution, chaos, and calamity will occur in the country. A dreadful man, son of nobody whose name not mentioned will arise. As king he will seize the throne, he will destroy the people of the land. The marshes and rivers will fill up with sand.”
“He has surely made an end of what is of the very life’s breath in the marshes”
Paradise Found and Lost: The Mesopotamian marshes, located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southern Iraq, were historically one of the world’s most important wetland environments. The area—once over twenty thousand square kilometers and thought by some to be the original Garden of Eden—has provided habitat for millions of migrating birds and had been inhabited since the time of the Sumerians by thousands of people living on artificial islands of mud and reeds and depending on sustainable fishing and farming. In the early 1990s, however, this important ecological and unique cultural jewel was destroyed by Saddam Hussein’s Ba’thists through a series of constructed dams and water diversions designed to eradicate the remaining marsh dwellers who had escaped previous massacres. This led to what many regard as perhaps history’s most severe ecocide in history, that is, the deliberate destruction of an environment for the purpose of ethnically cleansing it of a specifically targeted population. The ancient Mesopotamian inscriptions and Old Testament quotations in this collection offer a haunting presage for these recent events as well as a grim reminder of the overwhelming role that despotic rulers and environmental hardships have always played in the lives of commoners.
2007
HISTORY/ENVIRONMENT/GENOCIDE
US $19.95 / CAN $25.95
207 pages, paperback
Includes essays by Nik Wheeler (Witness to a Lost Landscape: The Marshes in the Mid-Seventies), Emma Nicholson (Human Rights in the Iraqi Marshlands: A Case for Genocide), and Rasheed Al-Khayoun (Experiences and Hopes of the People of the Al-Ahwar Marshes).
Contains 21 photographs of artifacts from the Semitic Museum of Harvard University and 31 plates of rare, never before published, images of life in the Iraqi marshlands from the 1934 Field expedition.
ISBN 978-0-9717468-3-1
Ultreia! Onward!: Progress of the Pilgrim
by Robert L. France (Editor)
Matthew Fox (Foreword)
“If you carry a sole book on your pilgrimage in addition to your travel guide, this should be the one!
Pilgrims struggling toward Santiago de Compostela in medieval times would shout in chorus “E ultreia! E suseia! Deus aia nos! (Onwards! Upwards! God help us!) as encouragement to keep moving ahead when facing burdensome difficulties. Today, with the renewed and increasing popular interest in “El Camino,” modern pilgrims facing fatigue and discomfort still require such motivation to continue their forward progress. In this compilation of over two hundred quotations drawn from over thirty contemporary sources, editor Robert L. France offers new equivalents to the old pilgrims’ rallying cry. These quotations, arranged in sequence to be read at specific breaks during each day’s walk on pilgrimage, should serve to revive strength and enthusiasm and thus help inspire those wearing the scallop shell to achieve their physical goal of “hugging the apostle” upon reaching Santiago de Compostela. The quotations are equally enjoyable for those unable to travel, as they extol the beauty of the Spanish and French countryside and provide a perfect introduction to the process of pilgrimage in a modern, secular world.
2007
TRAVEL/LANDSCAPE/RELIGION
US $13.95 / UK £8.00 / CAN $16.95
129 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-09717468-5-5
A Wanderer All My Days: John Muir in New England
by J. Parker Huber (Author)
Michael P. Branch (Foreword)
“I have no doubt I’ll be a wanderer all my days.”
“It is a blessed thing to go free in the light of this beautiful world.”
“Mine [fate] has been to wander in all wild places as a lover of nature, botanist, geologist, naturalist.”
Travel was Muir’s passion; roving a state of his being…He liked moving and being in place. He was a seeker and a dweller. Muir had a sense of belonging that was both domestic and wild…New England was part of Muir’s soul. He imbibed it from various sources. His direct association with the region spanned two decades. In all he spent about five weeks there at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries…These peregrinations show Muir’s gift to be with a variety of places and people and in different situations.
Compiled from John Muir’s journal entries, letters, and hundreds of additional sources, this resource presents a detailed examination of Muir’s travels throughout New England—from the mountains of Maine to the halls of Harvard University. With comprehensive insights into Muir’s wanderings, this unique reference discusses the beginnings of the environmental movement as well as how 19th century New England literary society evolved. This distinctive look at Muir showcases how he was just as much shaped by the cultural landscapes of the East as he was by the pathless expanses of the West.
2006
NATURE/TRAVEL/LITERATURE
US $23.95 / CAN $26.95
376 pages, paperback
Contains 17 hand-drawn maps to situate Muir’s wanderings.
ISBN 978-0-9717468-4-8
Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water
Edited by Robert Lawrence France
Forewords by Herbert Dreiseitl and by Laura Sewall
This is a book about water; not so much about what it is, though there is some of that present, but rather, what it does. Specifically, what water does to those individuals who allow themselves to enter into a close relationship with it. Deep Immersion: The Experience of Water provides an overview of how to establish water—human connections by anchoring readers to a deeper understanding of the important roles played by water in all our lives. The idea, always swirling just beneath the surface throughout the book, is that the more we learn about and experience water, the more we are moved to give ourselves over to it—to deeply and profoundly immerse ourselves in its physical essence and spiritual nature, and in so doing, reciprocate by preserving it presence in our enriched lives, untainted.
Short-listed for top environmental book of the year from independent publishers.
NATURE/LITERATURE
US $15.95 / Canada $22.95
124 pages
ISBN 0-97174680-X
Profitably Soaked: Thoreau’s Engagement with Water
Edited by Robert Lawrence France
Foreword by Ann Haymond Zwinger
Afterword by Roderick Frazier Nash
Would it not be a luxury to stand up to one’s chin in some retired swamp for a whole summer’s day, scenting the sweet-fern and bilberry blows, and lulled by the minstrelsy of gnats and mosquitoes?….Surely, one may as profitably be soaked in the juices of a marsh for one day, as pick his way dry-shod over sand. Cold and damp, – are they not as rich experience as warmth and dryness?
– Henry David Thoreau, June 16, 1840, Journal Vol I, p. 141-142.
A century of academic scholarship has left us with an incredibly dull and dry image of Thoreau as the moping detached intellectual or the reflective nature mystic. In this collection of quotations compiled from all of Thoreau’s works and arranged under the headings Adventure, Joy, Contact, and Contemplation, editor Robert France counters this prevalent view through nothing less than resurrecting Thoreau—bringing him back to the life that he so fully lived. This work clearly demonstrates that Thoreau was very much the thirsting sensualist, using his body at every opportunity as the way in which to engage the world. And it was water, above all else, that served as the means for Thoreau’s deepest immersion into nature.
NATURE/LITERATURE
US $15.95 / Canada $22.95
124 pages
ISBN 0-97174680-X
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Conscious Endeavors: Essays on Business, Society and the Journey to Sustainability
by Robert M. Abbott
Written by one of Canada’s most experienced sustainability strategists, Conscious Endeavors gathers together essays and speeches that collectively serve as a compass to guide business and other key stakeholders toward a relationship with the Earth, and with each other, that is more sustainable than our current societal trajectory. Organized into four sections – origins, homage, reflection, renewal – the book also includes very personal observations by Abbott at the beginning of each section that explain his personal connection to the land. Taking its title from Thoreau’s observation that humans can elevate themselves, and those around them, by conscious endeavor, this is a brave book that inspires us all to affect the quality of our days – to make the world, and each other, better.
2009
BUSINESS/ECONOMICS/ENVIRONMENT
US $19.95 / CAN $21.95
198 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-1-397809-7-11